honcho

American English, from Japanese 班長 (hanchō, “squad leader”), from 19th c. Mandarin 班長 (bānzhǎng, “team leader”). Probably entered English during World War II: many apocryphal stories describe American soldiers hearing Japanese prisoners-of-war refer to their lieutenants as hanchō.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑn.t͡ʃoʊ/, enPR: hŏnʹchō
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhɒn.tʃəʊ/, enPR: hŏnʹchō

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒntʃəʊ
• Hyphenation: hon‧cho

honcho (plural honchos or honchoes)

1. (informal) boss, leader
   • 1986, Oliver Stone, Platoon (motion picture), spoken by Private Gator Lerner (Johnny Depp):

     Says they had no choice. Says the NVA killed the old honcho when he said no. Now he says all the rice is theirs.

   • 1992 October 26, Calvin Sims, “Hard Times, Even on Rodeo Drive”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     For years, snobbery has been a hallmark of this city of wealth and glamour, movie stars and entertainment honchos, where it is possible to spend $20,000 for a watch, $6,000 for a suit with 14-karat gold pinstriping or $15,000 for a handbag of rare leather.

   • 1999, Dave Barry, Big Trouble, Penguin, published 2010, →ISBN, page 13:

     Mostly he wrote what the higher honchos in the newsroom referred to, often condescendingly, as “offbeat” stories.

   • 2001, Michael Moore, Stupid White Men, page 22:

     Gulfstream makes jets for both Hollywood honchos and foreign governments like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

• head honcho

honcho (third-person singular simple present honchos, present participle honchoing, simple past and past participle honchoed)

1. (transitive, informal, Canada, US) To lead or manage.
   • 2010, Buddy Valastro, Cake Boss, Simon and Schuster, published 2020, →ISBN, page 142:

     I had never honchoed that many people so even something as simple as ordering them to knead dough or fondant became an important decision.

   • 2012, David Lewis Yewdall, Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN:

     The task of choosing the clips that comprised the allotted 10 minutes in the bake-off was left to the supervising sound editor, as it was he or she who honchoed the preparation of the soundtrack for the rerecording mixing stage in the first place.

• “honcho”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “honcho”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

honcho

1. Rōmaji transcription of ほんちょ