Hetman

noun

noun ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A Cossack headman or general.
  2. 2
    Title used by the second-highest military commander in Poland and Lithuania (15th to 18th century).

Etymology

From Polish hetman, probably from Middle High German houbetman, heuptman (“commander”), from Old High German houbitman, from Proto-West Germanic *haubidamann. Compare modern German Hauptmann (“captain”), Haupt, Mann. The Polish e in hetman attests to a borrowing from an East Central German dialect, in which Middle High German -öu- gives -ē-. Doublet of head man.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.