caput

See also: căput and căpuț

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin caput (“the head”). Doublet of cape, chef, and chief, and distantly of head.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəpˈʊt/, /ˈkæp.ət/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

caput (plural caputs or capita)

1. (anatomy) The head.
2. (anatomy) A knob-like protuberance or capitulum.
3. The top or superior part of a thing.
4. (UK) The council or ruling body of the University of Cambridge prior to the constitution of 1856.
   • 1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC:

     Your caputs and heads of colleges.

5. (medicine, colloquial) Ellipsis of caput succedaneum.

Related terms

• capite
• caput mortuum

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “caput”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• act up

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from German kaputt, from Yiddish קאַפּוט‎ (kaput, “lost, dead”).

Noun

caput m (uncountable)

1. kaput

See also

• fer caput

Latin

Alternative forms

• (part or division of a writing): cap., c.
• capud

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *kaput, from Proto-Indo-European *káput-. Cognates include German Haupt and English head.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈka.put/, [ˈkäpʊt̪]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈka.put/, [ˈkäːput̪]

Noun

caput n (genitive capitis); third declension

1. (of human and animals) The head.
   1. (poetic) The head as the seat of the understanding.
2. (transferred sense) (of inanimate things):
   1. (in general) The head, top, summit, point, end, extremity (beginning or end).
   2. (of rivers) The origin, source, spring (head).
      • 23 BCE – 13 BCE, Horace, Odes 1.1:

        nunc ad aquae lēne caput sacrae.

   3. (rare, of rivers) The mouth, embouchure.
   4. (botany, sometimes) The root.
   5. Vine branches.
   6. (poetic) (of trees) The summit, top.

   caput rerum ― the main point of the matter

3. (literature) A man, person, or animal.
4. (figurative):
   1. Physical life.
   2. Civil or political life.
   3. (very frequently) The first or chief person or thing; the head, leader, chief, guide, capital.
      • 59 BC–AD 17, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 1.16:

        ut mea Rōma caput orbis terrārum sit

      • 59 BC–AD 17, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 8.4:

        Rōmam caput Latiō esse

   capita rerum ― the heads of the state affairs

5. (writing) A division, section, paragraph, chapter.

   Synonym: capitulum

6. (New Latin, anatomy) A headlike protuberance on an organ or body part, usually bone.

   caput ulnae ― head of the ulna

7. (New Latin, pathology) A disease; a severe swelling of the soft tissues of a newborn's scalp that develops as the baby travels through the birth canal.

Usage notes

Caput can be used with either a genitive or a dative in the sense of a capital city.

Inflection

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	caput	capita
Genitive	capitis	capitum
Dative	capitī	capitibus
Accusative	caput	capita
Ablative	capite	capitibus
Vocative	caput	capita

Derived terms

• capitastrum
• capitellum
• capitilavium
• capitium
• capitulum
• capitulātim
• capitālis
• capitāneus
• capitātiō
• capitātus
• capitō
• Capitōlium
• Capitōlīnus
• -ceps
• occiput
• sinciput

 

Descendants

• Direct reflexes:
  • Sardinian: cabudu, cabude, cabide
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: capus (see there for further descendants)
• Borrowings:
  • → English: caput
  • → Portuguese: caput
• Reflexes of capita and, via back-formation, a new singular *capitum:
  • Balkans:
    • Aromanian: capite; capit, capitu
    • Istro-Romanian: cåpete
    • Romanian: capete, capăt
  • Italy and environs:
    • Central Italian: capita; capitu, capito
    • Lombard: caved
    • Sardinian: cabida

• From *capucla, feminine of *capuclum, for *caputulum:
  • Italian: capocchia
• From *caputia:
  • Italian: capoccia

References

• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911), “caput”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 130

Further reading

• “caput”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “caput”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• caput in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• caput in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to uncover one's head: caput aperire (opp. operire)
    
  • to bow one's head: caput demittere
    
  • to cut off a man's head: caput praecīdere
    
  • to strike one's head against the wall: caput parieti impingere
    
  • source, origin: fons et caput (vid. sect. III., note caput...)
    
  • a man's life is at stake, is in very great danger: salus, caput, vita alicuius agitur, periclitatur, in discrimine est or versatur
    
  • the main dish: caput cenae (Fin. 2. 8. 25)
    
  • to put our heads together: capita conferre (Liv. 2. 45)
    
  • a person's life is in jeopardy: caput alicuius agitur (vid. sect. V. 8)
    
  • the main point: quod caput est
    
  • (ambiguous) bare-headed: capite aperto (opp. operto)
    
  • (ambiguous) with head covered: capite obvoluto
    
  • (ambiguous) to recklessly hazard one's life: in periculum capitis, in discrimen vitae se inferre
    
  • (ambiguous) to subtract something from the capital: de capite deducere (vid. sect. XII. 1, note Notice too...) aliquid
    
  • (ambiguous) to condemn some one to death: capitis or capite damnare aliquem
    
  • (ambiguous) to repeal a death-sentence passed on a person: capitis absolvere aliquem
    
  • (ambiguous) Solon made it a capital offence to..: Solo capite sanxit, si quis... (Att. 10. 1)
    
  • (ambiguous) to suffer capital punishment: supplicio (capitis) affici
    
• “caput”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• caput in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• “caput”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• Dizionario Latino, Olivetti
• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “head”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin caput (“the head”). Doublet of cabo, chefe, and chef.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈka.put/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈka.put/

Noun

caput m (plural caputs)

1. (Brazil) that which is located above
2. (Brazil, law) a title or header of a legal article containing its central idea