cabestan

French

cabestan

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French cabestant, of uncertain origin. Either from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old Occitan cabestran (“instrument to coil cords”), a noun use of present participle of verb cabestrar, from cabestre (“pulley rope”) ; or from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Spanish cabestrante, cabrestante, from cabestrar (“to bind with a halter”), from cabestro (“halter”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin capistrum (“halter”), from capere (“to hold”) (see capacious); or perhaps the Spanish is from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin caper (“goat”) + -stans, present participle of stare (“to stand”) ; confer French chèvre (“she-goat”), also a machine for raising heavy weights.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.bɛs.tɑ̃/

Noun

cabestan m (plural cabestans)

1. capstan (vertical cleated drum or cylinder)

Further reading

• “cabestan”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.