English

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Etymology

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From captain +‎ -cy. Piecewise doublet of chieftaincy.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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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.

Derived terms

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Translations

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