[f. CHIEF sb. + -ESS.] A female (ethnic) chief.
1843. T. J. Farnham, Trav. Gt. W. Prairies, II. 17. He often lays at his feet, I am told, the proudest hawk’s feather that adorns the brow of Chief or Chiefess.
1862. M. Hopkins, Hawaii, 18. The converted chiefess, Kapiolani … descended alone into the crater, casting from her hands into the seething lava the sacred berries.
1882. Miss Gordon Cumming, in Bibl. Treas., 33. The highest chiefess dared not, on pain of death, taste food that had been prepared for any man.
1881. J. Dawson, in Sat. Rev., 18 June, 787/2. No one can address a chief or chiefess without being first spoken to.
