căpăta

Forms

căpăta (third-person singular present capătă, past participle căpătat, third-person subjunctive capete), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *capitō (“to take, to come to the end”), a verb the sources reconstruct; the compound incapitō is recorded in the Latin glossaries.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} Most authorities, from Diez and Ascoli to Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu, and Ciorănescu, derive it from Latin caput (“head”) in its senses “capital” (hence “to gain”) and “end” (hence “to come to the end”, “to get to”).^{[2][3][7][4][1]} Meyer-Lübke's REW instead took it from capiō (“to take”), which fits the meaning;^[8] DELR finds this hard to accept, since the frequentative of that verb is captō.^[3][8] Crețu's derivation from the same frequentative was later abandoned.^[2]

The verb has relatives in the Romance languages: Italian capitare (“to arrive, to happen”), Logudorese kabidare (“to gather”), and Occitan acaptar and French achever, which go back to a compound with ad-.^[2][4][8] Albanian has kaptoj.^[2][1] In Aromanian, căpitari means “to shear sheep around the head”.^[7][8] The DA doubted the Latin origin because the verb is missing from the old texts, and compared Hungarian kapni (“to get”);^[9] Ciorănescu finds the first argument not decisive and rejects the Hungarian link.^[7][2] The same Latin pattern gave scăpăta, from *excapitō.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, a Romanian–Latin glossary of the mid-17th century, which glosses capăt “I obtain” with Latin acquiro, conquiro.^[7][3][6] Tiktin dates the same glossary to about 1670.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The verb first meant to come into possession of something, by effort or by chance: to earn, to acquire, to obtain.^[7][3] From this grew the sense “to receive as a gift or as alms”, whence the phrase de căpătat “given as charity, begged”: Vlahuță describes children dressed in cast-off clothes de căpătat.^[10][5] It also came to be used of states and illnesses one “catches”.^[6]

In Bihor and the west of Transylvania it means “to gather, to pick (from the ground)”, a sense Candrea and Densusianu compare with Logudorese.^[3][4][2] In Maramureș the reflexive s-a căpătat means “it happened”.^[9] Derivatives include căpătătură “foundling” (Lexicon of Buda, 1825), încăpăta “to get hold of, to find” in Cantemir, and recăpăta “to get back” (1849).^[3][4]

Timeline

• c. 1650 – capăt in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, the first record.^[3][6]
• 1719–1722 – încăpăta “to get hold of” in Cantemir.^[3][4]
• 1825 – căpătare “gain” and căpătătură “foundling”, the latter in the Lexicon of Buda.^[3][4]
• 1849 – recăpăta “to get back”.^[3]
• 1871 – căpătat as a noun.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To obtain something one has asked for; to receive, especially as a gift or as alms.^[5][6]
2. To earn, to gain, to acquire by effort.^[5][7]
3. To get, to come to have (a quality, an illness, a feeling): a căpătat curaj “he took courage”.^[6][10]
4. (regional, western Transylvania) To gather, to pick up from the ground.^[2][3][6]

Word family

• căpătare
• căpătătură
• încăpăta
• recăpăta

Related words

• cap
• capăt
• scăpăta
• Latin caput

Usage notes

The present tense stresses the stem: capăt, capeți, capătă, subjunctive să capete.^[10] De căpătat “obtained by begging, given as charity” works as an adjective.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. căpăta
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. căpăta
4. ^ a b c d e f g Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. căpăta
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 158
6. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 325
7. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. căpăta
8. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1635
9. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. căpăta
10. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. căpăta