caput

cap-ut lat. ‘Kopf, Haupt’

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From Proto-Italic *kaput, from Proto-Indo-European *káput. Cognates include German Haupt and Englishhead.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈka.pʊt]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkaː.put̪]

Noun

caput n (genitive capitis); third declension

1. The head. (of human and animals)

   caput hūmānum ― human head

   1. (poetic) The head as the seat of the understanding.
2. (transferred sense) (of inanimate things):
   1. (in general) The head, top, summit, point, end, extremity (beginning or end).
   2. The origin, source, spring (head). (of rivers)
   3. (rare, of rivers) The mouth, embouchure.
   4. (botany, sometimes) The root.
   5. Vine branches.
   6. (poetic) (of trees) The summit, top.

   caput rerum ― the main point of the matter

3. (literature) A man, person, or animal.
4. (figurative):
   1. Physical life.
   2. Civil or political life.
   3. (very frequently) The first or chief person or thing; the head, leader, chief, guide, capital.

   capita rerum ― the heads of the state affairs

5. (writing) A division, section, paragraph, chapter.

   Synonym: capitulum

6. (New Latin, anatomy) A headlike protuberance on an organ or body part, usually bone.

   caput ulnae ― head of the ulna

7. (New Latin, pathology) A disease; a severe swelling of the soft tissues of a newborn's scalp that develops as the baby travels through the birth canal.

Usage notes

• Caput can be used with either a genitive or a dative in the sense of a capital city.

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	caput	capita
genitive	capitis	capitum
dative	capitī	capitibus
accusative	caput	capita
ablative	capite	capitibus
vocative	caput	capita