capilla

Forms

capilla f (plural capillas)^[1] Old Spanish capiella (also capiela, capieylla) is the usual medieval form, as in the Cid and Berceo.^[2][3][4] The form capilla is found in the Libro de buen amor.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish capiella, inherited from Late Latin cappella, a diminutive of cappa (“cape; hood”).^[2][5][6][1] The Latin word first meant the piece of his cape that Saint Martin gave to a beggar, then the oratory built to keep this relic, and finally any oratory or chapel.^[2][5][7] Corominas, following Aebischer, finds the Latin word in its proper sense about 660 and in the sense “chapel” at the beginning of the 8th century.^[2] The Latin word for the cape appears at the end of the 6th century and is of unknown origin.^[8]

The same word is Portuguese capela, Galician capela, Asturian capiella, Catalan capella, Occitan capèla, Old French chapele and Italian cappella.^[9][1]

The sense “hood” is the same word for the DLE.^[6] The BDELC lists it instead under capillo “cowl, headdress”, from cappellus, another diminutive of the same noun, and the Academy's dictionary of 1884 had two separate entries, deriving the hood from the Spanish noun and the chapel from Latin.^[10][11] Covarrubias derived the hood from Latin caput (“head”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has capiella for a chapel: the bishop Jerónimo dismounts and goes to the chapel.^[2][13][3] In Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen the word already means a hood, la capiella colgada “the hood hanging down”.^[3][13]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose uses it both for a chapel within or beside a church and for a private oratory, which the Siete Partidas forbid anyone to build at home without the bishop's leave.^[14] The hood sense is common from the 13th to the 15th century.^[15] Nebrija (c. 1495) distinguishes capilla de iglesia, Latin sacellum, from capilla de capa, cucullus.^[16][17]

Covarrubias in 1611 adds the main chapel of a church (capilla mayor) and the body of singers, as in la capilla Real, and records the proverb No quiero, no quiero, mas echadmelo en la capilla, said of those who refuse a thing they want.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades records capilla for a monk or friar, contrasted with bonete for a secular cleric.^[18] Later senses are the military portable altar, the coterie of followers (usually as capillita), the light on a Spanish taxi and a sheet of a book handed over during printing.^[6][19] The word passed to Philippine languages, as Tagalog kapilya.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – capiella “chapel” in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2][5]
• 1236–1246 – Berceo uses capiella for a hood.^[3][13]
• 1256–1300 – the Siete Partidas regulate private chapels.^[14]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija distinguishes the chapel of a church from the hood of a cape.^[16][17]
• 1513 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico, of a cape with a velvet hood.^[20]
• 1525 – the chapel sense in Mexico City.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records capilla mayor and the chapel of singers.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the hood and the chapel two separate entries.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A chapel: a building attached to or forming part of a church, with its own altar and dedication: La capilla del Santísimo está a la izquierda del altar.^[6][19][1]
2. A private oratory (oratorio).^[6]
3. A portable oratory of a regiment or other military unit.^[6]
4. The paid choir or body of musicians of a church.^[6][12]
5. The body of chaplains and other ministers of a chapel.^[6]
6. (chiefly in the diminutive, derogatory) A clique of people with shared interests.^[6]
7. A hood fastened to the collar of a cape, overcoat or religious habit.^[6][1]
8. (colloquial) A regular cleric, as opposed to a secular one.^[6][18]
9. (Spain) The light on the roof of a taxi that shows whether it is free.^[6]
10. (printing) A sheet delivered loose while a book is being printed.^[6][19]

Word family

• capellán
• antecapilla
• capilla ardiente
• capillita

Related words

• capa
• capillo
• Late Latin cappella
• Portuguese capela

Usage notes

Capilla ardiente is the room or chapel where a dead person lies in state, and capilla mayor the part of a church with the high altar.^[6][5] In Panama capilla is also the seat of a district.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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, 833
3. ^ a b c d e Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 98
4. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. capilla
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. capilla
6. ^ 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. capilla
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. capilla
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. capa
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1404
10. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. capillo
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 205
12. ^ a b c d Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 426
13. ^ 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. capilla
14. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. capilla
15. ^ 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. 616
16. ^ a b 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. capilla
17. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 310
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 143
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. capilla
20. ^ a b 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. capilla
21. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. capilla