capra

Forms

capra f (plural capre, masculine capro)^[1] In the north the old form was Old Italian cavra (Lombard, Mantuan, Venetian, Bolognese), and metathesised forms such as Old Italian crapa are found too.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin capra (“she-goat”), the feminine of caper (“he-goat”).^[4][5][6][1] DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance */ˈkapr-a/ from cognates in every Romance variety and places it in the oldest layer of Proto-Romance, before Sardinian and Romanian split off.^[7]

The same word is French chèvre, Occitan cabra, Catalan cabra, Spanish cabra, Portuguese cabra, Sardinian craba and Romanian capră, and Friulian ciàvre.^[5][3][8] Metathesised forms go back to Late Latin crapa and are found in Italian dialects and in Gascon.^[3]

The Latin masculine continues Proto-Italic *kapro- (“he-goat”), with Umbrian and Celtic cognates, Ancient Greek κάπρος (kápros, “wild boar”) and Old Norse hafr (“he-goat”).^[9][1] Wiktionary takes it back to a PIE *kápros.^[1] De Vaan finds a loanword more likely: no single PIE word for “goat” can be reconstructed, and the form is suspiciously close to Celtic words for goat such as Old Irish gabor.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the plural capre in a Florentine text of 1264, and in the 13th-century Venetian Proverbia super natura feminarum.^[3][4][2] The sense is the domestic ruminant, kept for its milk, meat, hair and skin, whose skill on steep rocky paths was already proverbial.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word also for goat’s meat, for the wild goat, for the constellation of Capricorn, and for a long flame or meteor in the sky, called capra because it seems to leap.^[2] Cavalcare la capra “to ride the goat” meant to talk or act foolishly;^[2][10] Boccaccio has cavalcasse la capra inverso il chino.^[2][10]

From the 16th century the name passed to supports with legs, after the animal’s shape, as cavalletto comes from cavallo: in 1550 Bartoli uses it for a three-legged wooden frame with a pulley for lifting weights.^[4][11][12] Builders’ trestles, a sailors’ hoisting frame and, in the 20th century, the strut that joins the wings of an aircraft to the fuselage followed.^[6][12][10] The figurative “ignorant person” and the set phrase salvare capra e cavoli, from the riddle of the ferryman with a wolf, a goat and cabbages, are modern.^[6][10]

Learned derivatives keep Latin phrases: questione di lana caprina (before 1565) echoes Horace’s “to quarrel over goat’s wool”, and capro espiatorio “scapegoat” goes back to Late Latin caper emissarius, a calque of the Hebrew azazel.^[4]

Timeline

• 1264 – The plural capre appears in a Florentine text.^[3]
• 13th century – Capra is in the Venetian Proverbia super natura feminarum.^[4][2]
• 1288 – Capretto “kid” is recorded in Florence.^[4]
• 1313 – Lombard cavra appears in the statutes of Averara.^[3]
• 1550 – Bartoli uses capra for a hoisting frame.^[4][12]
• Before 1565 – Varchi uses questione di lana caprina.^[4]
• 1671 – Capra is recorded in sailors’ use for a white-crested wave.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. goat, a horned, bearded ruminant kept for its milk, meat and hair; also the female, the she-goat: un sentiero da capre.^{[6][14][12][1]}
2. Goatskin, tanned or raw.^[6][12]
3. (zoology) Any ruminant of the genus Capra; with a capital, the genus itself.^[6][15]
4. (figurative) An ignorant person, slow to learn.^[6][16]
5. A trestle: a plank resting on two legs in the shape of an inverted V, used by builders and painters.^[6][17][18]
6. A frame of three poles joined at the top, with a pulley for lifting heavy loads.^[6][12][17]
7. (nautical) sheers, a hoisting frame; on old galleys, the posts that held the awning in port.^[6][12]
8. (aeronautics) The strut structure joining the wings of an aircraft to the fuselage.^[6][12][17]
9. (astronomy, with a capital) Capella, the brightest star of Auriga.^[17][18]

Word family

• capretto
• capretta
• capro
• caprone
• caprino
• capraio
• caprile
• capriata
• incaprettare

Related words

• capriolo
• Latin caper
• French chèvre

Usage notes

Salvare capra e cavoli means to satisfy two opposing needs at once.^[6][12][17] Capra is the female and the general name; the male is capro or caprone, or becco.^[15][1]

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 Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 11, 584
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ 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 f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 744
14. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
17. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
18. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli