eldertongue

Modern English → Old English

Old English word for captain

5 headwords match “captain”, ranked by the scoring in the data pipeline. The five strongest follow; heafodmann ranks first.

  1. 1

    heafodmann

    score 15

    noun, masculine · strong consonant stem · 5 inflected forms

    captain — captain; leader, head

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular hēafodmann
    genitive singular hēafodmannes
    dative singular hēafodmenn
    accusative singular hēafodmann
    nominative plural hēafodmenn
    genitive plural hēafodmanna
  2. 2

    campealdor

    score 12

    noun, masculine

    captain — captain

    • opens the headword's definition
  3. 3

    frumlida

    score 9

    noun, masculine · weak · 4 inflected forms

    captain — the captain of a ship, boat, or other vessel

    • appears in the definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular frumlida
    genitive singular frumlidan
    dative singular frumlidan
    accusative singular frumlidan
    nominative plural frumlidan
    genitive plural frumlidena
  4. 4

    steormann

    score 9

    noun, masculine · strong consonant stem · 5 inflected forms

    captain — steersman, captain (of a ship)

    • appears in the definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular stēormann
    genitive singular stēormannes
    dative singular stēormenn
    accusative singular stēormann
    nominative plural stēormenn
    genitive plural stēormanna
  5. 5

    steoresmann

    score 9

    noun, masculine · strong consonant stem · 5 inflected forms

    captain — steersman, captain (of a ship)

    • appears in the definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular stēoresmann
    genitive singular stēoresmannes
    dative singular stēoresmenn
    accusative singular stēoresmann
    nominative plural stēoresmenn
    genitive plural stēoresmanna

How this ranking works

Scores are computed once, when the site is built, from the Wiktionary data. Every headword whose definitions mention “captain” gets the points below; the candidates are then sorted by total. The score is shown on each entry above so the order can be checked rather than trusted.

The English word opens the headword's definition+10
It appears later in the first definition+6
It appears in any definition+3
It is in the headword's links+2
It is listed as an English descendant (etymological evidence)+9
The headword has an inflection table+3
Part of speech is a proper noun−5
Part of speech is a verb (-ian derivations are noisy)−3
The headword is an alternative form−6
The first definition is longer than three words−2

A candidate has to be a real headword with its own entry: inflected forms and grammatical terminology (genitive, nominative, preterite, …) never appear here.

Not one of these?

The match may be a different sense of “captain”, or an inflected form rather than a headword. Look up the form directly — the entry page marks the grammatical case.

Candidates derived from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each entry links to its source page. · CC BY-SA 4.0 and attribution · CC BY-SA 4.0