The story
- Proto-West Germanic · derived from*haubidamann
- Old High German · derived fromhoubitman
- Middle High German · derived fromhoubetman
- Polish · derived fromhetman
- English todayhetman
From Polish hetman, probably from Middle High German houbetman, heuptman (“commander”), from Old High German houbitman, from Proto-West Germanic *haubidamann. Compare modern German Hauptmann (“captain”), Haupt, Mann. The Polish e in hetman attests to a borrowing from an East Central German dialect, in which Middle High German -öu- gives -ē-. Doublet of head man.
Words from the same roots
Proto-West Germanic*haubidamann all →
head man
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.