capitão

Forms

capitão m (plural capitães, feminine capitã or (rare) capitoa, feminine plural capitãs or (rare) capitoas)^[1] The oldest texts write capitam and capitan, plural capitãaes and capitaães;^[2][3][4] Houaiss has capytom in the 15th century.^[2][3][4] The feminine is capitã, rarely capitoa.^[1][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin capitānus (“chief, commander”), from Latin caput (“head”), first recorded as Old Galician-Portuguese capitam in 1344.^{[3][4][6][7][2]} The Late Latin word stands beside capitāneus, which Vieira found in a 6th-century document;^[8][9] García de Diego treats the first as an unrecorded twin of the second, which left many Italian forms.^[8][9] Meyer-Lübke lists the medieval words for “captain” that come from it, among them Old Italian capitanio and Old French chevetaigne.^[10]

Several sources see a route through Italy: the DDGM's glossary of the Crónica thinks the word may have come from Italy, Aurélio derives it from Late Latin through Italian, and the 1975 Aurélio from Italian capitano;^{[2][11][12][1][13]} Wiktionary and Porto Editora take it from Genoese capitan.^{[2][11][12][1][13]} Spanish capitán, which García de Diego thinks may have come through French or Catalan, and French capitaine belong to the same family.^[9][8]

The Latin noun goes back to *kaput and *káput, and is cognate with the English word head.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Crónica of 1344: ajuntou muy grande hoste... e fez capitam della hũu seu filho “he gathered a very great host... and made one of his sons its captain”, and mandaron os capitãaes desenvolver suas bãdeiras “the captains had their banners unfurled”.^[2][14] The DDGM notes that the word is found only in one manuscript of the Crónica, where it replaces cabedel “leader”.^[2] The sense was “leader of an army”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From the leader of a host, the word passed to the commander of a fleet and of the king's guard: Barbosa (1611) lists capitão d'algũa armada, capitão da guarda del Rey and capitão gèral.^[15] Morais (1789) defines it as the officer between the adjutant and the major who commands a company, and records captains of merchant ships and the capitão general who governed a colony under the viceroys.^[16] In 1813 he adds the capitães mores of the African strongholds and the donatary captains of Brazil, who held civil and criminal jurisdiction.^[17] Cunha dates capitania “command” to the 15th century, capitânia “flagship” to 1500 and capitanear to the 16th century.^[4]

Brazil gave the word historical senses such as capitão do mato, the man who hunted down runaway slaves, and capitão de entrada, the adventurer who went into the forest to capture Indians.^[13][3] It also gave it popular senses: the float of a fishing net, the core of a cut orange, a ball of beans or fish paste with flour eaten with the fingers, and in Rio Grande do Sul a beetle larva.^[3][18][19] In the north-east the capitão is a bossy character of the bumba meu boi.^[20] Through the Portuguese of the East the word reached Asian languages: Japanese カピタン (kapitan), Malay kapitan and Hindi कप्तान (kaptān).^[1]

Timeline

• 1344 – capitam and the plural capitãaes in the Crónica of 1344.^[2][3]
• 15th century – the spellings capitão and capytom; first record of capitania “command”.^[3][4]
• 1500 – first record of capitânia “flagship”.^[4]
• 16th century – first record of capitanear.^[4]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists capitão d'algũa armada and capitão gèral.^[15]
• 1697 – Pereira translates it as Latin dux and imperator.^[21]
• 1789 – Morais defines the rank between adjutant and major.^[16]
• 1813 – Morais records the capitães mores of Africa and Brazil.^[17]
• 1871 – Vieira derives the word from Late Latin capitanus and notes capitaneus in a 6th-century document.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (military) A commander of troops; a great military leader.^[3][11][5]
2. (military) The rank of captain, between lieutenant and major; an officer of that rank, who commands a company.^[3][5][1]
3. (nautical) The master of a merchant ship; the commander of a ship or expedition.^[3][13]
4. The chief or leader of any group, such as a band or a party.^[3][11]
5. (sport) The captain of a team, who speaks for the players.^[3][1]
6. (Brazil, colloquial) A form of address to a man.^[1]
7. (Brazil) The main float of a fishing net.^[3][18]
8. (Brazil) A ball of beans or fish paste with farinha, eaten with the hand.^[3][22]
9. (Brazil, Azores, informal) A chamber pot.^[3][6]

Word family

• capitania
• capitânia
• capitanear
• capitão-do-mato

Related words

• cabeça
• capital
• capítulo
• Latin caput

Usage notes

In Brazil capitão is also short for capitão-aviador, the rank of captain in the air force;^[3][11] Houaiss gives this use a short article of its own.^[3][11] The plural is capitães.^[1][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. capitam
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. capitão
4. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. capitão
5. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. capitão
6. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. capitão
7. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 248
8. ^ a b c d Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 2, 94
9. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. *capitanus
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1633
11. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. capitão
12. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 299
13. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1771
14. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. capitan
15. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. capitão
16. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 230
17. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 342
18. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. capitão
19. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. capitão
20. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. capitão
21. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. capitão
22. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. capitão