'Chiefess': A Hawaiian Word

Abstract

THE VISITOR to Hawaii who frequents museums or does any reading touching the history of the islands is certain of coming upon the word chiefess. However unfamiliar the word may seem to the mainlander, it is used with complete casualness by the islander. Its meaning is, of course, unmistakable; chiefess is the feminine of chief, and the pair, chief -chiefess, is precisely analogous to author-authoress, actor-actress, seer -seeress, etc. Along with chiefess occurs also the word chiefly, familiar in spelling, but unfamiliar in usage, for it is not an adverb; instead it is an adjective, meaning 'of or pertaining to a chief (or chiefess).' It is found in such contexts as a chiefly family, of chiefly rank, bearing a chiefly kahili,' etc. Notwithstanding the suggestion of the archaic in the appearance and sound of chiefess, the word appears not to be an old one. Moreover, it appears not to have originated in the British Isles. The NED, using references available in England as authority, cites Hawaiian sources, with dates beginning at 1862.2 The earliest date recorded in the NED for chiefly is 1870,3 and though the source given is not Hawaiian, it is Pacific. The NED Supplement, on the other hand, using an American source, finds chiefess as early as 1778,4 and the DAE cites the same source. Probably we encounter chiefess as seldom as we do in American literature because chiefesses themselves are rare in American annals. At any rate, the word never passed into current usage on the mainland. Actually, it would appear that those who, as we shall presently see, initiated the use of the word in Hawaii had not encountered it at all, and so went through the process of coining it as a much-needed term. The Hawaiian origin of the word chiefess ought to be found much earlier than 1862-possibly as early as 1778, when Captain James Cook discovered and named the 'Sandwich Islands'; or 1779, when he was killed there. Certainly it seems that a need for the word would have arisen on