captaincy

From captain +‎ -cy. Piecewise doublet of chieftaincy.

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA or enPR then please add some!

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

captaincy (countable and uncountable, plural captaincies)

1. The rank or status of a captain.

   Synonym: captainship

2. The jurisdiction of a captain.
3. (historical) An administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires.

   Synonym: capitania

   • 1828, Juan van Halen, Narrative of Don Juan Van Halen's Imprisonment in the Dungeons of the Inquistion at Madrid:

     He obtains a captaincy in the Catalonian army

   • 1859, Garcilaso de la Vega, Christóbel de Acuña, Clements Robert Markham, Expeditions Into the Valley of the Amazons:

     The territory bathed by this river belongs to the captaincy of Benito Maciel the father.