Advertisement

Origin and history of *kaput-

*kaput-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "head."

It might form all or part of: achieve; behead; biceps; cabbage; cabochon; caddie; cadet; cap; cap-a-pie; cape (n.1) "garment;" cape (n.2) "promontory;" capital (adj.); capital (n.3) "head of a column or pillar;" capitate; capitation; capitulate; capitulation; capitulum; capo (n.1) "leader of a Mafia family;" capo (n.2) "pitch-altering device for a stringed instrument;" caprice; capsize; captain; cattle; caudillo; chapter; chef; chief; chieftain; corporal (n.); decapitate; decapitation; forehead; head; hetman; kaput; kerchief; mischief; occipital; precipice; precipitate; precipitation; recapitulate; recapitulation; sinciput; triceps.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit kaput-; Latin caput "head;" Old English heafod, German Haupt, Gothic haubiþ "head."

Entries linking to *kaput-

achieve(v.)

early 14c., acheven, "to perform, execute, accomplish;" late 14c., "gain as a result of effort," from Old French achever (12c.) "to finish, accomplish, complete," from phrase à chef (venir) "at an end, finished," or Vulgar Latin *accapare, from Late Latin ad caput (venire); both the French and Late Latin phrases meaning literally "to come to a head," from ad "to" (see ad-) + stem of Latin caput "head" (from PIE root *kaput- "head").

The Lat. caput, towards the end of the Empire, and in Merov[ingian] times, took the sense of an end, whence the phrase ad caput venire, in the sense of to come to an end .... Venire ad caput naturally produced the Fr. phrase venir à chef = venir à bout. ... From this chief, O.Fr. form of chef (q.v.) in sense of term, end, comes the Fr. compd. achever = venir à chef, to end, finish. [Auguste Brachet, "An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language," transl. G.W. Kitchin, Oxford, 1878]

Related: Achieved; achieving.

behead(v.)

"kill by decapitation," Middle English bihevden, from Old English beheafdian, from be-, here with privative force, + heafod "head" (from PIE root *kaput- "head"). Compare German enthaupten, Dutch onthoofden. Related: Beheaded; beheading.

Advertisement

More to explore

biceps
1630s (adj.) "two-headed," specifically in anatomy, "having two distinct origins," from Latin biceps "having two parts," literally "two-headed," from bis "double" (see bis-) + -ceps, combining form of caput "head" (from PIE root *kaput- "head"). As a noun meaning "biceps muscle o
cabbage
type of cultivated culinary vegetable that grows a rounded head of thick leaves, mid-15c., caboge, from Old North French caboche "head" (in dialect, "cabbage"), from Old French caboce "head," a diminutive from Latin caput "head" (from PIE root *kaput- "head"). Earlier in Middle E
caddie
1630s, "a cadet, student soldier," Scottish form of French cadet (see cadet). From 1730 as "person who runs errands;" meaning "golfer's assistant" is from 1851. A letter from Edinburgh c. 1730 describes the city's extensive and semi-organized "Cawdys, a very useful Black-Guard, w
cattle
Latin adjective capitalis "principal, chief," literally "of the head," from caput (genitive capitis) "head" (from PIE root *kaput...
kerchief
.)) + chief "head" (from Latin caput "head," from PIE root *kaput- "head")....
capitulate
in classical Latin "heading," literally "a little head," diminutive of caput (genitive capitis) "head" (from PIE root *kaput...
capital
from Latin capitalis "of the head," hence "capital, chief, first," from caput (genitive capitis) "head" (from PIE root *kaput...
fit
1680s, "process of fitting," from fit (v.). From 1823 as "the fitting of one thing to another;" 1831 as "the way something fits."..."paroxysm, sudden attack" (as of anger), 1540s, probably via Middle English fit (n.) "painful, exciting experience" (early 14c.), from Old English f
crisis
early 15c., crise, crisis, "decisive point in the progress of a disease," also "vitally important or decisive state of things, point at which change must come, for better or worse," from Latinized form of Greek krisis "turning point in a disease, that change which indicates recov
envy
late 13c., from Old French envie "envy, jealousy, rivalry" (10c.), from Latin invidia "envy, jealousy" (source also of Spanish envidia, Portuguese inveja), from invidus "envious, having hatred or ill-will," from invidere "to envy, hate," earlier "look at (with malice), cast an ev

Share *kaput-

Advertisement
Trending
Dictionary entries near *kaput-
Advertisement