Definition

familiar; a friend, also gentle; hence, a bullock (as being tame; applied, although masculine, to a cow); and so, a chieftain (as notable, like neat cattle)

Etymology

or (shortened) אַלֻּף; from H502 (אָלַף);

Where the KJV renders it

• captain
• duke
• (chief) friend
• governor
• guide
• ox

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.