jefe

Forms

jefe m (plural jefes, feminine jefa or jefe, feminine plural jefas or jefes)^[1] The early spelling was xefe, the one the Diccionario de Autoridades uses;^[2][3][4] gefe is found in the 18th century, and the Academy writes jefe by 1843.^[5][2][3][4] The feminine jefa entered the Academy's dictionary in 1843.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French chef (“head, chief”), which comes from Latin caput (“head”).^[5][6][7] Wiktionary instead derives it through Old Spanish xefe from Old French chief.^[1] The French word goes back to Vulgar Latin capum, a popular form recorded from the early 7th century, altered from the classical noun; spelt ⟨chieef⟩ and ⟨chief⟩, it is in French texts from about 881.^[8][9]

It is a doublet of the inherited cabo, and the DEEH sets it beside that word and Catalan cap in its article on the Latin noun.^[1][10] Portuguese chefe and English chief are French loans too, and the 19th-century Catalan quefe was taken from Spanish.^[5][11] The Spanish word was borrowed as Tagalog hepe, a form also used in Cebuano and Central Bikol.^[1]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *kaput; its cognates are Germanic, such as Old English hēafod, from Proto-Germanic *haubud-.^[12] Autoridades derived it from a Greek ⟨Cephas⟩ “head”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word came late: Corominas found no trace of it in Las Casas, Percyvall, Covarrubias, Franciosini, Minsheu or Oudin, and Oudin translates French chef only by cabeça, caudillo and general.^[5] Pagés cites it from Calderón, so the BDELC dates it to the mid-17th century.^[5][6] Corominas thought he had found it in papers on the siege of Barcelona of 1714, and the Diccionario de Autoridades (1739) defines xefe as the head who directs and governs the members of a body or office.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In 1724 xefes de los yndios and jefe appear in Yucatán and Santo Domingo, the first American records.^[3] Domínguez notes that the naval rank jefe de escuadra was introduced under Philip V.^[13] The 1843 dictionary has the heraldic sense and mandar en jefe “to be in supreme command”,^[4] and the 1869 edition adds jefe de día and jefe político, then the civil governor of a province.^[14] In Argentina jefe político came to mean a chief of police, or the head of a rural district.^[5][15] The purist Baralt warned that the word does not always render French chef.^[16]

In Mexico and Cuba jefe is a popular respectful form of address.^[17][18] In Mexico, Nicaragua and Bolivia jefe also means “father”, and in Mexico jefa “mother”.^[19][1]

Timeline

• mid-17th century – the first record, in Calderón.^[5][6]
• 1714 – papers on the siege of Barcelona, according to Corominas.^[5]
• 1724 – the first records from the Americas, in Yucatán and Santo Domingo.^[3]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades enters xefe.^[2]
• 1843 – the Academy writes jefe and enters the feminine jefa.^[4][5]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del fr. chef”.^[20]
• 1899 – jefatura enters the Academy's dictionary.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The head or superior of a body, party, office or business; a boss.^[7][1]
2. (military) An officer of the rank of major, lieutenant colonel or colonel, or the naval ranks equivalent to them.^[7][1]
3. (heraldry) The chief, the upper part of a shield.^[7][1]
4. (colloquial) A form of address to a man in some position of authority, or to a stranger: Oiga, jefe, ¿dónde queda la estación?^[18][17]
5. (Mexico, Nicaragua, Bolivia, colloquial) father;^[19][1] jefa, mother.^[19][1]
6. jefe de Estado: head of state.^[18]

Word family

• jefa
• jefatura
• jefazo
• subjefe
• jefe de Estado
• jefe de gobierno
• redactor jefe

Related words

• cabeza
• cabo
• capataz
• capitán
• chef
• coronel
• director
• general
• sargento
• supervisor
• Latin caput

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 537
3. ^ a b c d Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. jefe
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 419
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 503
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jefe
7. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. jefe
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. chef
9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. jefe
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 1433
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1667
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. caput
13. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1028
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 445
15. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 265
16. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 401
17. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 143
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jefe
19. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. jefe
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 614