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Headman   /hˈɛdmən/   Listen
Headman

noun
(pl. headmen)
1.
An executioner who beheads the condemned person.  Synonym: headsman.
2.
The head of a tribe or clan.  Synonyms: chief, chieftain, tribal chief.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Headman" Quotes from Famous Books



... new yams at Onitsha, on the Niger, is thus described: "Each headman brought out six yams, and cut down young branches of palm-leaves and placed them before his gate, roasted three of the yams, and got some kola-nuts and fish. After the yam is roasted, the Libia, or country doctor, takes the ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... as a general rule, are able to live at home. There is persecution, but they are not turned out of village, street, or house. Often they come in groups, two or three families together perhaps, or a whole village led by its headman comes over. There is less of the single one-by-one conversion and confession, though there is an increasing number of such, and they are ...
— Things as They Are - Mission Work in Southern India • Amy Wilson-Carmichael

... was generally received with the "cold shoulder" upon our arrival at an Arab camp, and no supplies were forthcoming in the shape of milk, &c. until the long coorbatch (hippopotamus whip) of Hadji Achmet had cracked several times across the shoulders of the village headman. At first this appeared to me extremely brutal, but I was given to understand that I was utterly ignorant of the Arab character, and that he knew best. I found by experience that Hadji Achmet was correct; ...
— The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia • Samuel W. Baker

... walls of which boast of no ornament save a row of tom-toms, and the sides and window ledges of which are lined with an expectant crowd of Sidis of varying age, from the small boy of eight years to the elderly headman or patel, who is responsible for the good behaviour of the community and is the general arbiter of their internal disputes. This is the Sidi Jamatkhana or caste-hall: and long before you reach the door threading your way through a crowd ...
— By-Ways of Bombay • S. M. Edwardes, C.V.O.

... Kaffa the slaves are lazy and pretentious, because they know that their owners do not look to them for labor, but speculate on their children, whom they will sell.[656] In general, in East Africa, the master-owner has not the power of life and death, and the slave has a right of property. "A headman (of a village) in debt sells first his slaves, then his sisters, then his mother, and lastly his free wives, after which he has nothing left."[657] Stuhlmann[658] says that slaves in Uganda are well treated, as members of the family. Brunache[659] says the same of the ...
— Folkways - A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals • William Graham Sumner


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