cappella

Forms

cappella f (plural cappelle)^[1] Older forms include Old Italian capella, chapella and capela;^[2][3] Old Corsican had capilla.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin cappella, a diminutive of Latin cappa (“cloak”) with the suffix -ella, literally “little cloak”.^[4][5][6][1] The word first named the cloak of Saint Martin of Tours, kept as a relic by the Merovingian kings, and then the oratory that held it.^[4][5][6][7]

The LEI finds it in a Merovingian oath of 679, where capella is the cloak itself, and about 710 for the building that kept the relic.^[3][4] Under the Carolingians the word spread, with the sense “consecrated building, oratory”, to northern Italy and Catalonia, mostly through documents of the imperial or royal chancery: Milan 835, Padua 839, Piedmont 896, Bobbio in the 10th century, Tuscany 941 and Salerno 966.^[3] After the papal chancery took it up in 986 it grew more frequent in southern Italy as well, where Gallo-Romance influence under the Normans may have helped it.^[3] Meyer-Lübke likewise sees France as the starting point, and no earlier than the 5th century.^[8]

The same word is Old French chapele, French chapelle, Old Occitan chapela, Catalan capella, Spanish capilla and Portuguese capela.^[3][5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The LEI's earliest Italian records are Old Corsican capilla in a document of 1260 and cappella in Pistoia in 1285, followed by the Florentine statutes of the Compagnia di Orsanmichele (1294–97).^[3] DELI dates it 1297, and the TLIO's first text is the 13th-century Cremonese poet Ugo di Perso.^[4][2] The sense was a small church, standing alone or part of a larger building.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian a cappella was a small consecrated building without a baptistery, used as a minor parish church or attached to castles, palaces, monasteries or cemeteries; it could also be the district that depended on such a chapel, and the set of vestments used for services.^[2] The medieval Italian communes used the word for the people who belonged to the same church, organised for defence.^[6][9]

From the chapel the word passed to the singers and musicians who performed sacred music there: DELI records this in Vespasiano da Bisticci, before 1498.^[4] German took this sense as a semantic calque in German Kapelle in the 16th century, and French borrowed capella in music in 1703.^[10] A cappella, of polyphonic vocal music without instruments, has been used since the 18th century.^[11]

A second group of senses names round tops: the head of a large nail, the cap of a mushroom, and in vulgar use the glans; military slang calls a young recruit a cappella, and colloquially fare una cappella is to make a blunder.^[6][7][12] The Tuscan proverb tutto passa fuorché le cappelle de' chiodi plays on these senses.^[13][14] Tommaseo also records cappella as a woman's headdress, in Poliziano.^[13]

Timeline

• 679 – Merovingian Latin capella names the cloak of Saint Martin.^[3]
• c. 710 – The word names the building where the relic is kept.^[3][4]
• 835 – Capella is recorded in Medieval Latin at Milan.^[3]
• 1285 – Cappella is recorded at Pistoia.^[3]
• 1297 – DELI's first record of the sense “small church”.^[4]
• Before 1498 – Vespasiano da Bisticci uses it for a body of church singers and musicians.^[4][10]
• 16th century – German Kapelle takes the musical sense.^[10]
• 1703 – French capella is recorded in music.^[10]
• Before 1850 – The sense “cap of a mushroom, head of a nail” is recorded.^[6][7][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A chapel: a small building for worship, standing alone or part of a palace, castle, cemetery or church: la cappella del cimitero.^[6][7][9]
2. In a church, a large recess along the aisles with a side altar or sacred images.^[6][7][12]
3. A wayside shrine with a sacred image.^[6][7][12]
4. (ecclesiastical) A chaplaincy, the same as cappellania.^[6][7][9]
5. (ecclesiastical) The assembly of bishops, prelates and dignitaries at a service celebrated or attended by the pope: cappella papale.^[6][7][9]
6. (music) A choir of singers and musicians performing sacred music in a church: maestro di cappella.^[6][7][12]
7. (history) In the medieval communes, the people belonging to the same church, organised for defence.^[6][9]
8. The cap of a mushroom; the head of a large nail: Il porcino ha una cappella bruna.^[6][7][12]
9. (military slang) A young recruit.^[6][7][12]
10. (vulgar) The glans of the penis.^[6][7][12]
11. (colloquial) A blunder: fare una cappella, prendere una cappella.^[6][7][12]

Word family

• cappellano
• cappellania
• cappelletta

Related words

• cappa
• cappello
• French chapelle

Usage notes

Common phrases are cappella gentilizia, a family chapel, cappella mortuaria, where the dead lie before burial, cappella palatina, in a royal palace, and tenere cappella, said of the pope attending a solemn service.^[7][11] Musica a cappella is vocal music in counterpoint without instruments.^[9][11]

GRADIT, Devoto–Oli, Sabatini–Coletti, Zingarelli and Treccani treat the senses “cap of a mushroom, head of a nail, glans, recruit, blunder” as a separate cappella derived from cappello, recorded before 1850.^{[6][7][12][11][15]} DEI and the GDLI derive this cappella too from the Late Latin diminutive of cappa, there a kind of cap, and DEI compares Lombard capèla “nail head” and Medieval Latin capella “helmet” at Padua in the 13th century.^[16][14]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 11, 481
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
11. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 742