capitán

Forms

capitán m (plural capitanes, feminine capitana, feminine plural capitanas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin capitanus (“chief”), a derivative of caput (“head”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary gives the Late Latin adjective capitāneus, with the suffix -āneus.^[1] Corominas notes that the adjective is found in the 6th century, applied to things, and that the Romance forms show the noun to be old as well.^[2]

In every Romance language the word is semi-learned, taken from medieval Latin.^[2] Corominas takes the lack of a final ⟨-o⟩ as a sign that Castilian borrowed it from Catalan capità (1315), perhaps as a nautical term, or less probably from Occitan;^[2][5] García de Diego derives it from Italian capitano and allows French or Catalan as the route.^[2][5] Vidos argues for Italian, and the FEW for Occitan, without proof in Corominas's view.^[2] Other forms are Portuguese capitão and Old French chevetaine.^[1][6]

Some scholars, Jannaris among them, have derived the Romance word from Byzantine Greek κατεπάνω (katepánō, “the one at the top”), the title of the Byzantine governors of southern Italy, Latinised as Medieval Latin catapanus from 989, and remade after the Latin word for “head”.^[2][1] Corominas follows the common view that the word is Latin, admitting at most that the Greek and Latin formations arose independently.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEMel's earliest record is in the Libro de los doce sabios of about 1237.^[7] The DCECH and the Breve diccionario date the word only from López de Ayala, about 1375, but the derivative capitanía from about 1300, in the Gran Conquista de Ultramar.^[2][3] In the 14th and 15th centuries it meant a military leader in general, as in Fernández de Heredia's capitan general Themistocles, and in Pulgar's chronicle (c. 1484) also the commander of a fleet.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense “ship's captain” is recorded from 1493, in Pulgar, and the nao or galera capitana “flagship” from the same time;^[2][3][9] Zaccaria thought that Italian capitano in this sense was Hispanic, a suggestion Corominas thinks worth studying.^[2][3][9] In the Americas the conquerors gave the title to native chiefs: a Puerto Rico record of 1515 lists Caguas, capitán.^[10]

Autoridades defined it as the officer who commands a company of soldiers, a commander-in-chief of an army or fleet, and by extension the leader of outlaws or rebels.^[11] The Academy's 1899 dictionary adds that a captain commands a merchant ship and formerly commanded a warship.^[12] Modern senses include the captain of a sports team; in Cuba, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico capitán is a head waiter, and in Colombia and the Caribbean it names fishes.^[4][13][14]

Timeline

• c. 1237 – the Libro de los doce sabios has capitán.^[7]
• c. 1300 – the derivative capitanía in the Gran Conquista de Ultramar.^[2][3]
• c. 1375 – the DCECH's date of first record, in López de Ayala.^[2][3]
• mid-15th century – capitanear is first recorded, in Gómez Manrique.^[2][3]
• 1493 – Pulgar uses it for the commander of a ship, and capitana for the flagship.^[2][3]
• 1515 – first records from the Americas, in Tierra Firme and Puerto Rico.^[10]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it as the commander of a company of soldiers.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. captain: an officer ranking above a lieutenant (teniente) and below a major (comandante).^[4][1]
2. A person at the head of a body of troops; in general, a military leader.^[4][15]
3. The person in command of a ship.^[4][1]
4. The leader of a sports team.^[4][15]
5. A person who leads a group or movement.^[4]
6. (Cuba, Mexico) A head waiter.^[4][13]
7. (Colombia, Caribbean) The name of several fishes, among them the hogfish of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.^[13][14]

Word family

• capitana
• capitanear
• capitanía

Related words

• cabo
• capataz
• Latin caput
• Catalan capità

Usage notes

The feminine is capitana; as a noun it also means the flagship of a squadron (nao capitana) and, colloquially, the captain's wife.^[4] Capitán general is the highest rank in the Spanish army.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 834
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. capitán
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. capitán
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. capitán
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. capitán
8. ^ 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. 617
9. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 111
10. ^ 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. capitán
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. capitán
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 191
13. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. capitán
14. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. capitán
15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. capitán