Etymology

head man

Today it means: The person in charge of an organization, clan, tribe, or other group. Full definition →

Middle English heed man ← Old English hēafodmann ← Proto-West Germanic *haubidamann
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*haubidamann
  2. Old English · inherited fromhēafodmann“leader; captain, head of a group”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromheed man
  4. English todayhead man

From Middle English heed man, from Old English hēafodmann (“leader; captain, head of a group”), from Proto-West Germanic *haubidamann, equivalent to head + man. Cognate with Dutch hoofdman (“chief; chieftain”), German Hauptmann (“captain”), Swedish huvudman (“chief; principal; leader”). Compare also English headsman. Doublet of hetman.

Words from the same roots

Proto-West Germanic*haubidamann all →

hetman

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.