Subchief

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who holds authority beneath a chief or principal leader
2. Someone occupying a rank subordinate to a chief in a hierarchy or organization
3. An official of secondary rank who answers to a chief or head authority

Etymology: "Subchief" is a plain compound: the prefix "sub-", meaning "under" or "below" (from Latin "sub"), attached to "chief," a word that came into English through Old French "chief" from Latin "caput," meaning "head." Put together, a subchief is someone who sits beneath the head, a deputy to the leader. The word is best understood as one of a family of "sub-" formations that share the same pattern of meaning. Its near relatives "subchef" and "subhead" follow the same logic in kitchens and in printed headings, so the three words are doublets in the sense that they come from the same building blocks but were assembled separately in each context. The "head" idea runs through all three: the chief, the chef, and the head are each the top of something, and the sub- prefix places the word one level down.