archi-

archi-

or arch-

pref.

1. Chief; highest; most important: archiepiscopal.

2. Earlier; primitive: archenteron.

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[French archi- and Italian arci-, both from Latin archi-, from Greek arkhi-, arkh-, from arkhein, to begin, rule.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

archi-

combining form

a variant of arch-

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

archi-

a combining form with the general sense “first, principal,” prefixed to nouns denoting things that are earliest, most basic, or bottommost (archiblast; archiphoneme; architrave); or denoting individuals who direct or have authority over others of their class, usu. named by the base noun (archimandrite; architect).

Also, esp. before a vowel,arch-. Compare arch-¹, arche-.

[< Greek, comb. form akin to archḗ beginning, árchos leader, árchein to be the first, command]

Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.