capon

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English capoun,^[2][1] inherited from Old English capūn,^[3][4][5][6] borrowed from Latin cāpō (“castrated cock”), accusative cāpōnem.^[7][8][3][9] Old Northern French capon, from the same Latin word, probably reinforced it in Middle English.^[7][8][6] The Middle English Dictionary likewise has both the Old English word and Old French chapon behind the Middle English one,^[2] and Hoad and the Shorter Oxford make the English word come from Anglo-Norman capun;^[10][11] the Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the first third of the 12th century.^[12] The Latin word is also the source of French chapon and Italian cappone,^[7][8] and a Vulgar Latin *cappō is reconstructed for the French form.^[9][1] Skeat took it from Ancient Greek κάπων (kápōn), but Klein derives that Greek word from the Latin.^[13][9] Further back, the Latin word is probably related to words for cutting,^[14][10] such as Ancient Greek κόπτω (kóptō, “to strike, cut off”) and σκάπτω (skáptō, “to dig”),^[4][9][6] from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep- (“to cut”).^[8] Klein also compares Old English hamelian (“to mutilate”) and German Hammel (“wether”).^[9] The word spread to other Germanic languages too: compare Dutch kapoen, German Kapaun and Swedish kapun.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A castrated cock, in Old English glossaries, where capún glosses Latin capo and gallinaceus;^[15][7] Barnhart dates this to about 1000, in Ælfric's Glossary.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English Dictionary records dishes named after the bird, such as capon in concis, and the fat capon de haut grece.^[2] Trevisa defined it before 1398 as a cock made as it were female by cutting away its "gendringe stones";^[2] Chaucer has it four times and Gower twice.^[16] Capons were also paid as rent in kind, as an Act of 1495 records.^[7] From there the word moved to people: as a type of dullness and a term of abuse from 1542, in N. Udall's Erasmus, where a shuttle-brained Metellus comes home "as wyse as a capon",^[7][17] a sense surviving in Westmorland dialect;^[17] and as a word for a eunuch, used by Greene in 1592.^[18][7] Shakespeare's use for a love letter in Love's Labour's Lost copies French poulet, chicken and love letter alike, as Cotgrave records.^[7] Humorously, the word was applied to fish, especially the red herring,^[7][11] and a capon was a red herring in Kent and a dried haddock in Scotland.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – a castrated cock, in an Old English glossary.^[6][7]
• before 1250 – Middle English capun.^[6]
• 1495 – capons as a payment of rent in kind.^[7]
• 1542 – a type of dullness; a term of reproach.^[7]
• late 16th century – verb, to castrate.^[11]
• 1592 – a eunuch.^[18] The Oxford English Dictionary first has it in 1594.^[7]
• 1598 – a love letter, in Shakespeare (now obsolete).^[7][11]
• before 1641 – humorously, a fish, especially a red herring.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A male chicken castrated when young and fattened for the table: They roasted a capon for the feast.^[3][19][4]
2. A castrated male rabbit.^[4]
3. (dialect) Humorously, a fish, especially a red herring or a dried haddock.^[7][11][17]
4. (obsolete except in dialect) A dull or foolish person.^[11][7][17]
5. (obsolete, 1594–1691) A eunuch.^[7][11][18]
6. (obsolete, 1598) A billet-doux.^[7][11]

Verb

1. To castrate a cock; to caponize.^[7][11][4]

Word family

• caponize

Related words

• hatchet
• comma
• syncope
• apocope
• scapula

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
16. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
17. ^ a b c d e Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins