caput

See also: căput and căpuț

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin caput (“the head”), from Proto-Indo-European *káput (English head), itself from Proto-Indo-European *kap-. Doublet of cape, capo, chef, and chief, and distantly of head and Howth.

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], “Oxford in the Vacation”, in Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 22:

     D. has been engaged, he tells me, through a course of laborious years, in an investigation into all curious matter connected with the two Universities; and has lately lit upon a MS. collection of charters, relative to C⁠⸺, by which he hopes to settle some disputed points—particularly that long controversy between them as to priority of foundation. The ardor with which he engages in these liberal pursuits, I am afraid, has not met with all the encouragement it deserved, either here, or at C⁠⸺. Your caputs, and heads of colleges, care less than any body else about these questions.

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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.

Noun

caput m (uncountable)

1. kaput

See also

• fer caput

Latin

Human head

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

Noun

caput n (genitive capitis); third declension

1. The head. (of human and animals)

   caput hūmānum ― human 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).
      • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.354–355:

        “[...] mē puer Ascanius capitisque iniūria cārī,
        quem rēgnō Hesperiae fraudō et fātālibus arvīs.”

        “[I consider] my son Ascanius, and my wronging of his dear life’s summit, [how] I deprive him of his Hesperian kingdom and destined fields.”
        (Ascanius will become a legendary king and ancestor of the gens Julia.)

   2. The origin, source, spring (head). (of rivers)
      • 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.
      • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico VII.1:

        […] omnibus pollicitationibus ac praemiis deposcunt qui belli initium faciant et sui capitis periculo Galliam in libertatem vindicent.

   2. Civil or political life.
   3. (very frequently) The first or chief person or thing; the head, leader, chief, guide, capital.
      • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 1.16:

        ut mea Rōma caput orbis terrārum sit

      • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, 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.

Declension

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

• capitālis
• capitāneus
• capitastrum
• capitātiō
• capitātus
• capitellum
• capitilavium
• capitīna
• capitium
• capitō
• Capitōlīnus
• Capitōlium
• capitulātim
• capitulum
• -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: capiti; capit, capitu
    • Istro-Romanian: cåpete
    • Megleno-Romanian: capiti
    • 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 (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) 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 (2001–2024) “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.pu.t͡ʃi/, (careful pronunciation) /ˈka.put/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈka.pu.t͡ʃi/, (careful pronunciation) /ˈka.put/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈka.pu.te/, (careful pronunciation) /ˈka.put/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈka.pu.tɨ/, (careful pronunciation) /ˈka.put/

Noun

caput m (plural capita)(Brazil, higher register)

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