Etymologically
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capulus

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Forms

capulus m (genitive capulī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin capiō (“to take, seize”) + -ulus, literally “that which holds”.[1][2][3] Wiktionary explains its two senses from the suffix: taken actively it is the handle that one grips, taken passively the coffin that holds the body.[1] De Vaan sees the instrumental meaning of ⟨*kap-elo-⟩ in it,[4] and traces capiō to Proto-Italic *kap-i-, from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂p-i- (“to seize”) or a non-Indo-European ⟨*kap-i-⟩, with a cognate in Ancient Greek κάπτω (káptō, “to gulp down”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has both senses: in the Casina a speaker grabs the hilt so that another will not have the sword, and in the Asinaria capulī decus “an ornament for a bier” is said of someone ripe for the grave.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

As a handle it is chiefly the hilt of a sword, then the handle of other things, as Ovid has of a sceptre and a plough.[3][2] As a coffin or bier it is in Lucretius' phrase for going to the grave, and Apuleius has coffins half decayed with rot and age.[2] The grammarians also give a neuter capulum, and Paulus' Festus explains it as anything that holds something within it, the old word for a sarcophagus.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of a sword hilt and of a bier.[3][2][5]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, ad capulum īre, of going to the grave.[2][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of the handle of a sceptre and a plough.[3][2][5]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius, of rotting coffins.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The hilt of a sword; the handle of other implements.[3][2][1]
  2. A bier, coffin; a tomb, sarcophagus.[3][2][1]

Usage notes

Etymonline derives English cable from a Medieval Latin capulum “lasso, halter”, also from capiō.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com