capitare

Forms

capitare (first-person singular present càpito, first-person singular past historic capitài, past participle capitàto, auxiliary èssere)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *capitāre (“to come to a head, to end up”), a verb not recorded in classical Latin, formed on Latin caput (“head”) (genitive “capitis”).^[2][3][4][1] The sense would have moved from “to come to an end, to end up somewhere” to “to arrive by chance”.^[3][5] DEI finds the verb in the Codex Cavensis of 980 and compares Romanian căpăta (“to obtain”).^[6][1]

DEI, GDLI and Meyer-Lübke explained the verb instead as an iterative of Latin capiō (“to take”): the REW puts the Romanian verb, Sicilian capitari (“to take away secretly”) and Sardinian kabidare (“to gather”) under the same Vulgar Latin verb, which it glosses “to take”, and finds a link with “caput” unlikely in meaning.^[6][7][8] Prati, DELI and Nocentini prefer “caput”.^[9][2][3]

Latin “caput” continues Proto-Italic *kaput and is related to Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌱𐌹𐌸 (haubiþ, “head”) and Old English hēafod.^[10][1] De Vaan suggests it may come, like the Germanic words, from a substrate word for “cup”, related to “capiō”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the Novellino (13th century), in the sense “to arrive somewhere by chance”;^[2] Zingarelli dates the word to 1287, and the TLIO's first example is in Bono Giamboni's Libro de' Vizi e delle Virtudi (before 1292).^[11][12][3] In Old Italian it also meant “to lead to, to flow into”, of roads and rivers, and, as a transitive verb, “to bring to an end”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Giordano da Pisa (1305–1306) used it for coming to a good or bad end, the sense of capitare bene and capitare male.^[2][12] Boccaccio has it for arriving at a place: Rinaldo d'Asti, robbed, capita a Castel Guglielmo.^[13]

The sense “to happen” is recent.^[2] Magalotti (before 1712) still used it halfway between “to arrive” and “to happen”.^[2] Manzoni wrote la doveva capitare a me! (“it had to happen to me!”) in the first draft of I promessi sposi, but changed it in 1827 and replaced it with accadere in the final edition.^[2] As late as 1884 the purist Arlía condemned non mi è mai capitato and wanted accadere or occorrere in its place.^[2] Sabatini–Coletti date the sense “to happen” to the 18th century.^[5] French borrowed the verb as capiter in the 16th century.^[14]

Timeline

• 13th century – The Novellino uses capitare for arriving by chance.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it.^[12]
• 1305–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses it for coming to a good or bad end.^[2]
• 16th century – French capiter is recorded.^[14]
• 16th century – Ricapitare, later recapitare “to deliver”, is recorded.^[3]
• Before 1712 – Magalotti uses it in a sense close to “to happen”.^[2]
• 1804 – Recapito is recorded in the sense “address for delivery”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To turn up, to arrive or find oneself somewhere by chance or unexpectedly: Siamo capitati a Genova proprio durante la regata.^[4][15][5]
2. (third person) To happen, to occur (to someone): Che cosa ti è capitato? Impersonally with di or che: Mi capita spesso di perdere l'autobus.^[4][15][16]
3. Of a date or feast, to fall on a given day: Quest'anno il mio compleanno capita di sabato.^[4][5][11]
4. To come one's way, to present itself: Gli è capitata un'occasione da non perdere.^[4][15][16]
5. To fall to someone's lot: Mi è capitato un compagno di stanza simpatico.^[4]
6. (literary, rare) To lead to, to end up in.^[4][11]

Word family

• recapitare
• recapito
• malcapitato
• scapitare

Related words

• capo
• Latin caput
• Romanian căpăta

Usage notes

Capitare takes the auxiliary essere.^[15][11] Set phrases include capitare a tiro “to come within reach”, capitare tra capo e collo “to come out of the blue”, come capita “any old way” and il primo che capita “the first person who comes along”.^[4][15][11]

GDLI has a second, obsolete transitive capitare “to tax by head”, from capitanza “poll tax”, recorded in Matteo Villani.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 735
7. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 230
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana