chapiteau French · revision 15865

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 1160, Eneas|origins=la caput}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ʃa.pi.to/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''chapiteau''' ''m'' (plural chapiteaux)^(Wiktionary)

+ [[fro|chapitel]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|fro|chapitel]], [[inh|la-lat|capitellum]], a diminutive of [[la|caput|t=head; top]] used in Late Latin as a term of architecture for the widened top of a column.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|2, 259a) Bloch and Wartburg call it a Frenchified form of the Late Latin word,^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) and Wiktionary a probable semi-learned borrowing.^(Wiktionary) In this sense “capitellum” came before [[m|la|capitulum]], the source of [[chapitre]].^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ Cognate with [[oc|capitel]], [[es|capitel]] and [[it|capitello]].^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The ''Roman d'Eneas'' (about 1160) has ''chapitel'' for the top of a column.^(TLFi)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Since the capital is often ornamented, the word was extended to crowning ornaments in general and, in 1690, to the cornice of a piece of furniture.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) The sense “small cover, covering” gave several technical uses: the head of an alembic where vapours condense, the movable roof of a windmill and the conical roof of a beehive.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ In 1905 a magazine explained the ''chapiteau'' of a circus as the funnel-shaped canvas roof covering travelling circuses;^(BHVF) it now names the circus tent and, by metonymy, the circus itself (''sous le chapiteau'').^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1160 – ''Chapitel'' in the ''Eneas''.^(TLFi)

+ * 15th century – Christine de Pisan's gilded ''chapiteaux''.^(Littré 1873)

+ * 1690 – The cornice of a piece of furniture.^(TLFi)

+ * 1694 – The roof of a windmill and of a beehive, in Thomas Corneille.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1905 – The circus tent.^(BHVF)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(architecture)'' The [[m|en|capital]] of a column or pilaster: ''chapiteau corinthien'', ''chapiteau roman historié''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Le Robert)

+ # A crowning ornament; the canopy over a statue in a niche.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # The head of an [[m|en|alembic]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A circus [[m|en|big top]]; a large tent for shows or events; by extension, the circus.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(aeronautics)'' The nose cone of a rocket.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[chef]]

+ * [[chapitre]]

+ * [[cadet]]

+ * [[la|caput]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}