Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In anatomy, the head; the head or upper extremity of some part of the body.
- noun An abbreviation of the phrase caput senatus (literally, head of the senate), a council or ruling body in the University of Cambridge, England.
- noun In Roman law, the standing before the law, or the personal status, of a citizen.
- noun A fanciful term used by the old chemists to denote the residuum of chemicals when all their volatile matters had escaped; specifically, oxid of iron, which is the residue left when sulphate of iron is distilled at a red heat. Hence— Anything from which all that rendered it valuable has been taken away.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Anat.) The head; also, a knoblike protuberance or capitulum.
- noun The top or superior part of a thing.
- noun (Eng.) The council or ruling body of the University of Cambridge prior to the constitution of 1856.
- noun (Old Chem.) The residuum after distillation or sublimation; hence, worthless residue.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the upper part of the human body or the front part of the body in animals; contains the face and brains
- noun a headlike protuberance on an organ or structure
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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In fact, the word capital comes from the Latin word caput, which means “head.”
Having It All John Assaraf 2003
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In fact, the word "capital" in the context of punishment was coined to describe execution by decapitation, derived from the Latin word caput, which means "head."
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I wonder if the technical singular “head” is related to Latin caput, as catel indirectly is, or is that just a weird coincidence?
What’s the singular form of ‘cattle’? « Motivated Grammar 2010
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The clue for reconstructing the original lines he found in the expression caput ecclesiæ, which he judged referred to St. Peter.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery 1840-1916 1913
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Christian spirit, are like salt that has lost its savour, like that which the chemists call the caput mortuum, that has all its salts drawn from it, that is the most useless worthless thing in the world; it has no manner of virtue or good property in it.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume V (Matthew to John) 1721
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In #10, *kap-ut gives Latin 'caput' and Germanic *hauβuð German 'Haupt, Dutch 'hoofd', OE 'heafod' Modern English 'head'.
PIE "look-alike stems" - Evidence of something or a red herring? 2009
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If the chair or other familiar object is broken, then it is still styled _putt_ (for "caput," gone to smash); and if the child has himself broken anything he scolds his own hand, and says _oi_ or
The Mind of the Child, Part II The Development of the Intellect, International Education Series Edited By William T. Harris, Volume IX. William T. Preyer 1869
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In the assessment or census, which was made by the Censors, the slaves were not numbered at all, being supposed to have no "caput," or "civil condition."
The Captiva and the Mostellaria Titus Maccius Plautus 1847
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Clearly the Latin "caput" for head is the root of the word but my recollection is that the imagery comes from a head of cattle.
Kruse Kronicle 2009
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The last wipeout, which few remember was 91-92 when all the money center banks were essentially caput.
chained_bear commented on the word caput
Feudal term for the administrative center of a lordship.
August 24, 2008
bilby commented on the word caput
"The duplication of effort in the nuclear family is directly connected to the family's role as the principal unit of consumption in consumer society. Each household is destined to acquire a complete set of all the consumer durables considered necessary for the good life and per caput consumption is therefore maintained at its highest level."
- 'Women and power in Cuba', Germaine Greer in The Madwoman's Underclothes.
September 1, 2008
vanishedone commented on the word caput
While we wait for the OCSJTS list to be restored to life, may I propose this as a fitting tag for dodgy capitalisation?
November 17, 2009
vanishedone commented on the word caput
You know, when I started using this for FULLY CAPITALISED words as well as mESsEd uP ones, I hadn't realised just how many of those turn up on Wordnik...
November 18, 2009
bilby commented on the word caput
Having tags and comments on different pages is a disincentive to tagging, at least for me.
November 18, 2009
vanishedone commented on the word caput
Agreed; we've lost some of that lovely interaction between the two. (For example, I had to ponder whether to put a comedy tag on diecast and let someone come across it however much later, or whether to try to work it into something worth a comment.) Maybe John could be prevailed upon to add tags back into the comment pages, in proper Wordie style.
November 19, 2009
uselessness commented on the word caput
We need a way to manually merge words together. I don't think automation is going to be a reliable solution.
November 19, 2009
vanishedone commented on the word caput
There's Related, although caput's page is making me wonder what context is meant to be implied.
November 19, 2009
bilby commented on the word caput
Yeah, and if you go down to the bottom of Statistics there's the Caput/caput pie chart.
Would anybody care for some caput pie while I'm down there? *proffers*
November 19, 2009