capistro

Forms

capistrō (present infinitive capistrāre, perfect active capistrāvī, supine capistrātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin capistrum (“halter, headstall”), a verb made from the noun.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ovid has the first record, in the Heroides: Ariadne sits high on a car drawn by haltered tigers (capistrātīs tigribus).^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It meant to put a halter on an animal or to fasten it with one: Columella fastens draught animals to a yoke,^[5][6] and Pliny the Elder muzzles oxen.^[6][7] Columella also applied it to tying up vines.^[5][2]

In medieval Latin it was used figuratively for curbing and for guiding,^[8] and Erasmus still used it.^[9]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid writes of haltered tigers.^[3][4]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of draught animals and of vines.^[5][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of muzzling oxen.^[6][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put a halter or headstall on; to fasten with a halter.^[2][5]
2. To tie or bind fast (of vines).^[5][10]
3. (Medieval Latin) To curb, restrain.^[8]
4. (Medieval Latin) To guide.^[8]

Word family

• incapistrō

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.