Crossword Genius

Linked thing about one English paper's leader (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

chieftain

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'linked thing' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.

'about one english paper's leader' is the wordplay.
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'paper' becomes 'FT' (newspaper the FT, Financial Times).
'leader' becomes 'chain' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'i'+'e'+'ft'='ieft'
'ieft' put into 'chain' is 'CHIEFTAIN'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for chieftain that I've seen before include "Head of a clan" , "Clan leader" , "Tribe's leader" , "Tribal chief" , "Head of tribe" .)

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.