chieftess
nounEtymology An irregular form from chief or chieftain + -ess.
1
Synonym of chieftainess: a female chieftain or the wife of a chief.
- "This heroine was ever after treated by her nation as their deliverer, and made a chieftess in her own right, with the liberty to entail the same honour on her descendants ..." New travels among the Indians of North America, William Fisher, ed., p. 294; attributed to Rev. J. Hubbard. http://books.google.com/books?id=xcIRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA294&dq=chieftess&hl=en&ei=lUkqTMDcDsL58AaetZ3SCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
- Loved by a Maori Chieftess (title of a 1913 film from New Zealand)