hetman

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a Cossack leader or military commander

   The Cossack council elected a hetman to command the host during the campaign.

2. 2
   noun

   a senior military commander in the historical Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

   The grand hetman directed the Commonwealth's field armies in the king's name.

Borrowed from Polish hetman, probably from an East Central German form of Middle High German houbetman or heuptman ("commander"), literally "head man." The same German compound survives as Hauptmann ("captain").

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