The position, dignity, or office of a chief; the status or role of leadership; a somewhat archaic term for chiefship.
Formed from 'chief' plus the suffix '-ry,' which creates nouns referring to practices, places, or qualities (similar to 'foolery,' 'bravery,' 'archery'). This is a rare or archaic variant.
English has multiple suffixes that do similar jobs—we have '-ry,' '-ery,' '-ship,' and '-dom' all creating nouns from 'chief' (chiefry, chiefery, chiefship, chiefdom), showing how language contains overlapping patterns that speakers can choose from for different shades of meaning.
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