a combining form with the general sense "first, principal," that is 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, usually named by the base noun ( archimandrite; architect ).
Also, esp. before a vowel, arch- . Cf. arch- 1 , arche- .
[ arché beginning, árchos leader, árchein to be the first, command ]