capitulum

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [kaˈpɪ.tʊ.ɫũː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [kaˈpiː.tu.lum]^[1]

Forms

capitulum n (genitive capitulī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin caput (“head”) + -ulum, a diminutive.^[2][3] The noun caput is inherited from Proto-Italic *kaput, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *káput (“head”), cognate with German Haupt and English head.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it of drinking with one's little head covered.^[2][4] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense was a little head, and in comedy a person, even as a term of endearment, as in Terence's “o most charming creature”.^[4] It was used of the head of a plant or seed capsule.^[2]

In Late Latin it became a main division of a text, a chapter, and in medieval Latin also an article or clause, an edict or capitulary, a charge in an accusation, and a council, such as the chapter of a cathedral.^[1][6][7] Through Old French chapitre it gave English chapter about 1200, and it was borrowed as Italian capitolo.^[7][1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a little head.^[2][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it as a term of endearment.^[4][5]
• Late Latin – It is used of a chapter of a book.^[1][7]
• c. 1200 – English chapter is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A little head; a person; a term of endearment.^[2][4]
2. The head of a plant; a seed capsule.^[2]
3. (Late Latin) A chapter, section of a text.^[1][7]
4. (Medieval Latin) An article, clause; an edict, capitulary.^[6]
5. (Medieval Latin) A council; the chapter of a cathedral.^[1][7]

Word family

• capitellum
• capitulātim

Related words

• caput
• English chapter
• English capitulate
• English capital

Usage notes

The Appendix Probi has capitulum non capiclum, and Isidore uses capitulum of a woman's head-covering.^[8][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Appendix Probi, a late antique list of correct and censured Latin word forms ("calida non calda"); ed. H. Keil, Grammatici Latini IV, Leipzig 1864, 197–199.
9. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).