cappuccio

Forms

cappuccio m (plural cappucci)^[1] Forms recorded before 1375 include Old Italian cappuzzo, capuccio, capuzzo and chappuccio.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Italian cappa + -uccio, a diminutive of cappa “cloak”, which also named a cone-shaped head covering.^{[4][5][6][1][2]} The base noun is from Late Latin cappa, first “hood” and then “cloak”.^[4] Meyer-Lübke lists the word among the Italian derivatives of the Latin word, beside cappotto and capperone.^[7]

The cabbage sense has a disputed source.^[3][5][8] Migliorini and Duro took it from the hood, since the tight head of the cabbage looks like a hooded head, while Prati derived it from an unrecorded diminutive of capo “head”, later drawn towards the word for the hood.^[3] GRADIT and the Treccani dictionary also derive it from the word for head with the suffix -uccio, under the influence of the word for the hood.^[5][9] DELI points to the dialect forms Piedmontese cabüs, Lombard gabüs and Emilian gabùs and to Old Italian gambugio (about 1350) and gabuso (1585) for the same cabbage, and to French cabus, which is of Provençal origin and goes back to Latin caput (“head”).^[3] Since the Provençal word is recorded in 1256, long before the Italian cabbage name, DELI thinks the northern forms probably came from French or Provençal and were reshaped by folk etymology after the hood word.^[3][8] It finds Alessio's derivation of the Old Italian cabbage name from a Latin phrase meaning “swollen-stalked cabbage” unconvincing.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a poem by Guido Guinizzelli, written before 1276, in the form cappuzzo.^[3][2] Capuccio follows in a 1288 register of the Servite convent of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence.^[3][2] The sense is a pointed head covering of cloth, wool or fur, sewn to the collar of a cloak or gown and worn by clerics, members of confraternities and lay people alike.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the hood was part of ordinary dress: one lowered or drew it off as a sign of respectful greeting (avallare, trarre il cappuccio), a cappuccio a gote covered the cheeks, and gonfiare il cappuccio meant to grow proud.^[2] The word also named the part of a mail coat that covered the head, a friar preacher, and a padded cap that kept small children from hurting their heads when they fell.^[2] Varchi described the Florentine hood in three parts: the mazzocchio round the head, the foggia hanging over the left cheek and the becchetto, a long strip thrown over the right shoulder.^[10]

From the late 15th century the word named a kind of cabbage and lettuce with a tight round head (capucio at Verona in 1487, cavol cappuccio before 1597 in Soderini).^[3][11] The hood also named the Capuchin friars, cappuccini, and through the colour of their habit the drink cappuccino (1905).^[3][4] The meaning “cover of conical or pyramidal shape” is recorded before 1861 in Ippolito Nievo, and now covers the caps of pens and bottles and the steel cap on the point of an armour-piercing shell.^[3][9] In the late 20th century cappuccio became a colloquial short form of cappuccino the drink.^[8][6]

German took the word early as Kapuze (about 1483), and English as capuccio (1596), now rare.^[12] Nocentini derives French capuchon and Spanish capucho from the Italian word, while the French dictionaries see capuchon as a derivative of French capuche, perhaps influenced by Italian.^[4][12]

Timeline

• Before 1276 – Guido Guinizzelli uses cappuzzo for a hood.^[3][2]
• 1288 – Capuccio appears in a register of the Servite convent of the Santissima Annunziata, Florence.^[3]
• About 1483 – German Kapuze is first recorded.^[12]
• 1487 – Capucio is recorded at Verona for a kind of cabbage.^[3]
• 1527 – French capusson, later capuchon, is first recorded.^[12]
• Before 1587 – Cappuccino names a Capuchin friar.^[3]
• 1596 – English capuccio is recorded.^[12]
• Before 1597 – Soderini writes cavol cappuccio.^[3]
• Before 1861 – Ippolito Nievo uses the word for conical coverings.^[3]
• 1905 – Cappuccino names the coffee drink.^[3]
• 1983 – Cappuccio is recorded as a colloquial word for a cappuccino.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hood: a pointed head covering attached to the collar of a cloak, coat, raincoat or anorak, pulled up against rain or cold; also a friar's cowl.^{[5][13][6][1]}
2. A cloth hood that protects a horse's head from sun or rain.^[5][13][8]
3. (falconry) A leather hood put over the head of a hunting falcon during training or when it is not hunting.^[5][13][9]
4. A roughly conical cap that closes or covers an object: the cap of a pen, of a toothpaste tube, the foil over the cork of a bottle: Ho perso il cappuccio del pennarello.^{[5][13][6][1]}
5. (military) A steel cap on the nose of an armour-piercing shell.^[13][6][8]
6. (building) The stone capping of the cutwater of a bridge pier.^[13][6][8]
7. (colloquial) A cappuccino, the coffee drink: Prendo un cappuccio e un cornetto.^{[13][6][8][1]}
8. (botany) Cabbage with leaves packed into a tight round head (cavolo cappuccio, Brassica capitata); also, as an adjective, said of lettuce with a similar head (lattuga cappuccia).^{[5][13][9][11]}

Word family

• cappuccino
• cappuccina
• cappuccetto
• incappucciare
• incappucciato
• scappucciare
• accappucciare
• cappucciato

Related words

• cappa
• cappotto
• capperone
• German Kapuze
• French capuchon

Usage notes

In the cabbage sense the word is mostly an adjective, cavolo cappuccio, lattuga cappuccia.^[13][9][11] The phrase razza cappuccia names a Tuscan breed of pig.^[13][9] GRADIT treats the hood, the cabbage and the drink as three numbered headwords.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 l m n o p q r Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
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. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier