Advertisement

lieutenancy (n.)

"office or authority of a lieutenant," mid-15c., from lieutenant + abstract noun suffix -cy.

Entries related to lieutenancy

lieutenant (n.)
late 14c., "one who takes the place of another," from Old French lieu tenant "substitute, deputy," literally "place holder" (14c.), from lieu "place" (see lieu) + tenant, present participle of tenir "to hold," from PIE root *ten- "to stretch." The notion is of a "substitute" for higher authority.

Specific military sense of "army officer next in rank to a captain and commanding the company in his absence" is from 1570s. Pronunciation with lef- is common in Britain, and spellings to reflect it date back to 14c., but the origin of this is a mystery (OED rejects suggestion that it comes from old confusion of -u- and -v-).
-cy 
abstract noun suffix of quality or rank, from Latin -cia, -tia, from Greek -kia, -tia, from abstract ending -ia (see -ia) + stem ending -c- or -t-. The native correspondents are -ship, -hood.
captaincy (n.)
"rank or commission of a captain," 1818, from captain (n.) on the model of lieutenancy or some similar word where the -c- is etymologically justified. Earlier words in the same sense were captainry (1520s), captainship (mid-15c.).

Others are reading

Advertisement
Advertisement
Definitions of lieutenancy from WordNet

lieutenancy (n.)
the position of a lieutenant;
From wordnet.princeton.edu

Dictionary entries near lieutenancy

liege

lien

lieno-

lier

lieu

lieutenancy

lieutenant

life

life of Riley

lifeblood

life-boat

© 2001-2021 Douglas Harper