Ar"chi- (#). [L., archi-, Gr. , a prefix which is from the same root as to be first, to begin; the first place, beginning; chief. Cf. AS. arce-, erce-, OHG. erzi-.]
A prefix signifying chief, arch; as, architect, archiepiscopal. In Biol. and Anat. it usually means primitive, original, ancestral; as, archipterygium, the primitive fin or wing.
© Webster 1913.