capture

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈkæp.tʃə/, US /ˈkæp.tʃɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French capture (“a taking”),^[2][3][4] from Latin captūra (“a taking, especially of animals”), from captus, the past participle of capere (“to take, seize”),^[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to grasp”).^[2] It is related to captive and captor.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of seizing or taking: 1541–42, in a record of criminal trials.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The prize or prey taken is from 1706.^[5] The verb, to take by force, is from 1779 in Etymonline and 1795 in Southey's Joan of Arc according to Barnhart and the OED;^[2][3][5] the earlier verb in this sense was captive.^[2] In chess and draughts the capture of a piece is from 1819 as a verb and 1835 as a noun.^[2][5] River capture in geography is from 1898, the capture of an object by a star or planet's gravity from 1910, and of a particle in physics from 1923.^[5] Data capture is from 1971.^[5]

Timeline

• 1541–42 – the act of seizing.^[5][3]
• 1779 – verb, to seize.^[2]
• 1819 – in chess.^[2]
• 1898 – river capture.^[5]
• 1923 – in physics.^[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To take someone prisoner or take something by force.
2. To gain control of something, as in a game: capture a pawn.
3. To succeed in showing or recording something: the painting captures her likeness.
4. To attract and hold: capture one's attention.

Noun

1. The act of capturing or the state of being captured.
2. A person or thing captured; a prize.

Word family

• capturable
• capturer
• recapture
• precapture
• capture the flag

Related words

• captivate
• captive
• captivity
• caption
• captor
• capable

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press