Etymologically
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capture

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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
  • 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