caput

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈka.pʊt]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkaː.put]^[1]

Forms

caput n (genitive capitis); third declension^[1] Inscriptions have the spelling kaput, and Catullus and Ovid use an ablative capitī.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kaput (“head”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *káput (“head”).^[3][1] Cognate with Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌱𐌹𐌸 (haubiþ), Old English hēafod and Old High German houbit, all meaning “head”, and with Old Irish cúach (“cup”) and Welsh cawg (“cup”); de Vaan remarks that words for “cup” often come to mean “head”.^[3][1] The OLD and Pokorny also compare Sanskrit कपुच्छल (kapúcchala-, “hair at the back of the head”).^[2][4] In the compounds anceps, biceps and praeceps the suffix vowel is weakened, while sinciput keeps the u of the simple word.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Twelve Tables (c. 450 BC) use it in the phrase de capite civis, of a citizen's life or civil standing,^[2][3][5] and Naevius has the plain sense of the head, covered in mourning.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides the head of a person or animal, it stood for the seat of understanding, for a person's life, and for the life or civil status forfeited by a condemned man, so that capitis damnare meant to condemn to death or exile and capite deminutus described someone stripped of civil rights.^[2][6] It also meant an individual, counted “per head” (in capita), and the capite censi were the citizens too poor to be rated by property.^[2]

From the body it passed to the top or end of a thing: the summit of a mountain, the head of a boil, a projecting lobe of the liver in divination, the ends of a beam, the mouth or the source of a river, and the starting point of a road.^[2] Figuratively it was the origin of anything, a ringleader (scelerum caput in Plautus), the leading person of a state, the capital city, the essential point, the beginning of a speech, a heading, a clause or section of a law, and the principal of a loan as opposed to interest.^[2][6]

In medieval Latin it named the opening of a text, the first day of a period (caput ieiunii, Ash Wednesday), the choir of a church, the capital of a province or diocese, the mother house of an abbey and a chief manse.^[7][5] Neo-Latin writers used it for a coin bearing a head, the Italian testone.^[8] Every Romance language keeps it, from Romanian cap to Italian capo and Old French chief.^[9][1] In modern anatomy caput names a head-like protuberance of an organ or bone.^[1][10]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables forbid proposals de capite civis except before the greatest assembly.^[2][5]
• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it of the head.^[2][5]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus calls a person lepidum caput and a villain scelerum caput.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for the clause of a law and for the principal of a debt.^[2][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar counts the Helvetii by heads and speaks of the mouths of the Rhine.^[2][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus writes of the head of a boil.^[2][5]
• Medieval period – Caput ieiunii is Ash Wednesday and caput the capital of a diocese.^[7]
• 1537 – Beatus Rhenanus counts coins called capita.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The head of a person or animal; the head as the seat of understanding.^[2][6]
2. A person's life; the life or civil status forfeited as a penalty, hence capital punishment or the loss of civil rights.^[2][6]
3. A person, an individual, as counted per head.^[2][6]
4. The top, summit or extremity of a thing; the head of a boil; a lobe of the liver.^[2]
5. The source or the mouth of a river; the starting point of a road.^[2][6]
6. The origin or fountain-head of a thing; a ringleader.^[2]
7. The chief person, the capital city, the principal part; the main point.^[2][6]
8. The beginning of a speech or word; a heading, a section or clause of a law, a chapter.^[2][6]
9. The principal of a loan as opposed to interest.^[2][6]
10. (Medieval Latin) The opening of a text; the first day of a season; the choir of a church; the capital of a province or diocese; a chief manse.^[7]
11. (New Latin) A coin bearing a head.^[8]
12. (New Latin, anatomy) A head-like protuberance of an organ or bone.^[1]

Word family

• capitāle
• capitālis
• capitāneus
• capitārius
• capitātiō
• capitātus
• capitellum
• capitilavium
• capitō
• decapitō
• occiput
• quadriceps

Related words

• capidulum
• capis
• -ceps
• capiō
• English chief
• English capital
• English caput

Usage notes

Capital punishment was in theory the loss of one's caput, but through most of the Classical period Roman citizens went into exile instead of being executed.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
9. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com