kaput English · revision 1230

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /kəˈpʊt/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|de|kaputt|t=destroyed, ruined]],^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) [[der|fr|capot]], used of a player who had not won a single trick at [[piquet]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) The German word probably comes from the phrase ''capot machen'', a partial translation of French ''faire capot'',^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline) and French ''capot'' itself meant “cover, bonnet”.^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline) The American Heritage Dictionary traces it further to a Provençal word whose first element is ''cap'' “head”.^(AHD)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Finished, worn out, dead or destroyed (1895).^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ From the card table the German word spread to anything ruined or lost.^(AHD)^(Etymonline) It was popularized in English during the First World War,^(Etymonline) and it now commonly describes a machine that has stopped working.^(OED 1989)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1640s – German ''capot'' “destroyed, ruined”.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1895 – first recorded in English.^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Utterly finished, [[defeat|alt=defeated]] or destroyed.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+ # No longer working; [[useless]] or [[broken]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Hopelessly [[outmoded]].^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[capot]]

+ * [[capote]]

+ * [[cape]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}