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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word cap

cap1 head

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1500 Psaltirea Hurmuzaki
Inherited from
Latin caput
Ultimate origin
Latin caput
Etymology tree of cap1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin caput
Aromanian cap
Italian capo
Romanian cap
Spanish cabo
From the same root · cap1
Latin biceps ← caput
Latin capitālis ← caput
Latin capitāneus ← caput
Latin capitellum ← caput
Latin capitulum ← caput
Latin -ceps ← caput
Latin praeceps ← caput
Latin sinciput ← caput
Spanish capuzar ← caput
English caprice ← capo

Pronunciation

Forms

cap n (plural capete)[1] In the sense “chief, leader” the noun is masculine, with the plural capi: capii armatei “the heads of the army”, beside capetele armatei in Bălcescu.[2][3]

Etymology

The word for the head is inherited from Latin caput (“head”), a word kept by all the Romance languages.[4][5][6] Pușcariu and Ciorănescu start from a popular form *capum, remade as a noun of the second declension, and Wiktionary from capus, a form found in a Latin inscription.[7][2][1][8] The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *káput (“head”) and is cognate with Old English hēafod and German Haupt.[1][9]

The plural capete continues the Latin plural capita, as the plural oameni of om continues a Latin plural.[2][1] The masculine plural capi, used only for “chief”, follows the French word for “chief”.[4] The old sense “chapter” is modelled on Old Church Slavonic глава (glava), and the senses “terminus” and “bridgehead” copy French phrases with tête.[4]

The word survives in all four branches of Romanian: Aromanian cap, Megleno-Romanian cap and Istro-Romanian cåp.[4][2][10][11] Its Romance cognates include Italian capo, Catalan cap, Spanish cabo, Portuguese cabo and French chef.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to about 1500.[4] The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century already has capul “the head” in Psalm 3:3 and many other verses.[12] Tiktin's first record is of 1512, and MDA2's is in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583).[13][5] Coresi's psalter of 1570 compares brotherly concord to oil on the head: „Ca mirul în cap” “like the ointment on the head” (Psalm 132:2).[13]

Semantic evolution

Ciorănescu notes that Romanian keeps the concrete sense “head” of the Latin word, an archaic stage that Spanish also shows with cabeza, while French and Italian moved towards “chief” and “end”.[2] The REW finds the concrete sense in Romanian, Vegliote, southern Italian, Raeto-Romance, southern French and Catalan.[6] From the body part come “mind, judgement” (om cu cap “a man with brains”), “person” or “animal” counted one by one, and “top, end, beginning” (capul mesei “the head of the table”, capul podului “the end of the bridge”).[2][14] The old sense “chapter” followed Slavonic usage, and the masculine “chief” French usage.[4][2]

Graur observed that the phrase pe cap de locuitor “per head of the population” has exact parallels in Bulgarian, Russian and Greek, which the dictionaries did not mention.[15] In football slang cap is a header, recorded in the press in 1974.[16][3]

In the large family Romanian formed on the word, capăt “end” is a new singular made from the plural capete, recorded from 1561;[12] căpetenie “leader” is from 1675;[12] căpcăun “ogre”, from cap and câine “dog”, from 1667–1668.[4][2]

Timeline

  • c. 1500 – the first record, according to DELR;[12] capul in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.[4][12]
  • 1512 – Tiktin's first record.[13]
  • 1561 – capăt “end”.[4]
  • c. 1563–1583 – the Codicele Voronețean, MDA2's first record.[5]
  • 1570 – „Ca mirul în cap” in Coresi's psalter.[13]
  • 1649 – cap among the glosses of Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.[17]
  • 1667–1668 – căpcăun “ogre”.[4]
  • 1675 – căpetenie “leader”.[4]
  • 1688 – capul more than 300 times in the Bucharest Bible.[18]
  • 1691–1697 – căpos “stubborn; clever” and căpșor “little head”.[4]
  • 1852 – capîntortură “wryneck”.[4]
  • 1974 – cap “header” in football reports.[16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The head: the upper part of the human body, or the front part of an animal's, holding the brain.[3][5][1]
  2. The mind, intelligence or judgement.[2][14]
  3. A person or animal counted as one of a number: de cap “per head”.[3][2]
  4. The top, the end or the beginning of something: capul mesei, capul podului.[2][14]
  5. (football) A header, a blow to the ball with the head.[3][16]
  6. (dated) A chapter or paragraph.[2][4]
  7. (masculine, plural capi) A chief or leader: capul statului “the head of state”.[3][14][4]

Word family

cap2 cape

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1853
Borrowed from
French cap
Ultimate origin
Latin caput

Pronunciation

Forms

cap n (plural capuri)[1]

Etymology

The word for the cape is borrowed from French cap (“cape, headland”).[4][2][5][3][1] French took it from Old Occitan cap, which comes from caput (“head”), the source of the native Romanian word for the head.[4][19]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR records it in 1853 in the geographical sense “promontory”.[4] MDA2 gives a later first record, the Lexiconul tehnic român of 1957.[5]

Semantic evolution

Scriban marked it as a neologism, with the plural capuri and the example of the Cape of Good Hope, capul Bunei Speranțe.[14] Its plural keeps it apart from the native word, whose plural is capete.[3]

Timeline

  • 1853 – the first record, as a geographical term.[4]
  • 1939 – Scriban lists it as a neologism.[14]
  • 1957 – in the Lexiconul tehnic român, MDA2's first record.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cape or promontory: a piece of land, usually high and rocky, that juts out into the sea.[3][5][20]

Usage notes

The plural tells the words apart: capete for the head and most of its senses, capi for chiefs, capuri for capes.[3][2] Many set phrases use the first word: din cap până-n picioare “from head to foot” and cu noaptea-n cap “at the crack of dawn”.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. cap
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 141
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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. cap
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 289
  6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1668
  7. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 23
  8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
  11. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română
  12. ^ a b c d e Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 3:3
  13. ^ 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. cap
  14. ^ a b c d e f Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 226
  15. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1963), Etimologii romînești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. cap
  16. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. cap
  17. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. cap
  18. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 3:15
  19. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  20. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. cap

Related etymologies

  • dura · also from French
  • pur · also from French
  • pană · also from French
  • pat · also from French
  • masă · also from French
  • lac · also from French
  • primar · also from French
  • susține · also from French
Cite this entry

“Cap.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/cap. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·