Etymologically
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capillatus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ka.pɪlˈlaː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ka.pilˈlaː.tus][1]

Forms

capillātus (feminine capillāta, neuter capillātum, comparative capillātior); first/second-declension adjective[1] The comparative is capillātior.[2][1]

Etymology

It is from Latin capillus (“hair”) + -ātus.[2][3][1] De Vaan finds the usual derivation of capillus from caput (“head”) difficult in both form and meaning.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,[5] who describes a man with longer hair and a bigger beard than before, and Juba, a young man as well supplied with money as with hair.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It means having long hair, or having hair.[2][1] Long hair marked the old days, when it was not cut: Juvenal has wine bottled when the consuls were long-haired.[2][6] It was also a feature of foreign peoples and of boys and youths, often slaves: Petronius has a bald old man playing ball among long-haired boys.[2] Pliny the Elder names a tree capillāta because the Vestals' hair was brought to it, and uses the word of hair-like leaves.[2] Döderlein notes that capillus is the hair of the head, as opposed to the beard.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of long hair.[2][5]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius, of long-haired boys.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of a tree and of hair-like leaves.[2][5]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal, of the long-haired consuls of old.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Having hair, long-haired.[2][6][1]
  2. Of leaves or roots, hair-like.[2]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper