Forms: 6 (L. caccicus, caciquus,) cacike, cazike, 7 cassique, casique, (casica), 8 cachique, 8– cazique, 6– cacique. [a. Sp. cacique, cazique, or F. cacique, native Haytian word for ‘lord, chief’ (Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias).]
A native chief or ‘prince’ of the aborigines in the West Indies and adjacent parts of America.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind., I. II. (Arb.), 72. Makynge … a brotherly league with the Caccicus (that is to saye a kynge).
1577. Eden & Willes, Hist. Trav., 219 b. These Indians gyue great honour and reuerence to theyr Cacique.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India, 33. A cruel and cursed Cacike, that is to say a Lord in whose power we fell.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Apol., 46. The Mynes which the Cassique Carapana offered them.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1698), I. v. 124. They had a Casica too … but he could neither write nor speak Spanish.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1778), I. II. 97. Here Columbus was visited by a prince or cazique of the country.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 757. The several nations are governed by their chiefs or cachiques.
1799. Sheridan, Pizarro, I. i. On yonder hill, among the palm-trees, we have surprised an old cacique.
1843. Prescott, Mexico, II. i. (1864), 73. The cacique who ruled over this province.
Hence Caciqueship, † Caciquesse.
1760. trans. Juan & Ulloa’s Voy. V. v. (1772), 266. The caciquesses, or Indian women, who are married to the alcades … and others.
1849. [Doran], in Fraser’s Mag., XL. 411. The attainment of the caciqueship of that pseudo El Dorado by Gregor M‘Gregor.
