capa

Forms

capa f (plural capas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish capa, inherited from Late Latin cappa (“hood”).^[2][3][1] The DLE derives it through Medieval Latin, where the word meant “cape” and “hooded cape”, from the Late Latin word for a hood.^[4] The Latin word first appears at the end of the 6th century and in the 7th, in Gregory of Tours and Isidore of Seville, for a hood or other head covering; from there it passed to a cape with a hood and then to any cape.^[2]

The origin of the Late Latin word is unknown.^[2][3][5] Corominas notes that a link with Late Latin capanna (“hut”) would suggest a Celtic source, but finds no support for it in the Celtic languages.^[2] In his Catalan dictionary he thinks Latin probably received it from a non-Italic language.^[6] Wiktionary's leading theory is a shortening of Latin capitulāre, from caput (“head”), and Gómez de Silva also derives it from the word for “head”.^[1][7]

The same word is Portuguese capa, Galician capa, Catalan capa, Occitan capa, French chape and Italian cappa.^[8][1] The English cape and cope are cognates.^[1] Spanish received the word again in other forms through its neighbours: chapa “metal sheet” through French, and capote and capucha through French from Italian.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of 952.^[2][3] The DEMel has the word in charters of 1059 and 1112.^[10] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) the spoils include tanta buena capa e mantos e pelliçones “so many fine capes and cloaks and fur tunics”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts use the word for the long, sleeveless outer garment, and so capa meant “in secret”.^[13][12] Covarrubias in 1611 calls it the garment worn over all the others.^[14] Autoridades (1729) extends it to whatever covers or coats something else (capa de azúcar, de yeso), a wrapping for goods, a pretext, the bonus paid to a ship's captain and a tarred canvas at the head of the rudder; in thieves' cant it meant the night.^[15] It also records capa de pecadores for the night, which hides sinners, the short capa de toreador and the church vestment capa pluvial.^[15]

The sense “layer” appears in the 19th-century dictionaries, for things spread one over another, like a layer of earth.^[16][17] The DLE adds the outer leaf of a cigar, the coat colour of horses, a geological stratum and layers of the atmosphere and society.^[4] In Central America and the Caribbean capa is the wrapper leaf of a cigar, and in Costa Rica, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Uruguay a work or school smock.^[18]

Timeline

• 952 – a charter, the first record Corominas gives.^[2][3]
• 1059 – a charter of the Ebro valley.^[10]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy).^[11]
• c. 1234–1275 – the Fuero de Cáceres fixes tailors' rates for capes.^[11]
• c. 1400 – the derivative carapuça, later caperuza “hood”.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija defines it as a common garment, Latin paenula.^[19]
• 1512 – the first records from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[20]
• 1599 – the derivative capear.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls it the garment worn over all others.^[14]
• 1729 – Autoridades records the senses “coating” and “pretext”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cloak or cape: a long, loose, sleeveless garment open at the front, worn over the shoulders.^[4][1]
2. A coat that covers or coats something: una capa de barniz.^[4][1]
3. A layer lying over others and forming a whole with them, as of the atmosphere or of society.^[4][1]
4. The smooth leaf of tobacco that wraps a cigar.^[4][18]
5. A cover that protects something from damage.^[4]
6. The coat colour of a horse or other animal.^[4]
7. (figurative) A pretext or outward show that hides something; a cloak.^[4][1]
8. A person who hides something, a concealer.^[4]
9. (commerce) An amount paid to the master of a ship and stated in the charter party.^[4]
10. (geology) A stratum.^[4]
11. (heraldry) A division of the shield opened like a tent from the middle of the chief.^[4]

Word family

• capear
• caperuza
• capero
• capisayo
• socapa
• capigorrón

Related words

• capilla
• capillo
• escapar
• capote
• capirote
• capucha
• chapa
• Late Latin cappa
• English cape

Usage notes

Set phrases include de capa caída “in decline”, so capa de “under the pretext of”, hacer de su capa un sayo “to do as one pleases with one's own things” and comedia de capa y espada, a cloak-and-sword play.^[1] The DLE also gives capa as a name of the paca, a rodent, which Moliner treats as a separate headword.^[4][21] Capa is also a form of the verb capar “to castrate”.^[22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 827
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. capa
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. capa
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. capa
6. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 2, 525
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 145
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1643
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1402
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. capa
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. capa
12. ^ a b Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 614
13. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 97
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 422
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. capa
16. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 97
17. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 752
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. capa
19. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. capa
20. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. capa
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. capa
22. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. capar