capo

Shortening of capotasto, from Italian.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkæpəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑpəʊ/, /ˈkeɪpoʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

capo (plural capos)

1. A movable bar placed across the fingerboard of a guitar used to raise the pitch of all strings.

• (movable bar): capotasto

From Italian capo (“head, chief”). Doublet of cape, caput, chef, chief, head, and Howth.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkæpəʊ/, /ˈkɑːpəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkæpoʊ/, /ˈkɑpəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

capo (plural capos or capi)

1. A leader in the Mafia; a caporegime.
2. A leader and organizer of supporters at a sporting event, particularly association football matches.

capo (plural capos)

1. Alternative spelling of kapo
   • 2004, Gedenkstätte Buchenwald, Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 1937-1945: A Guide to the Permanent Historical Exhibition, Wallstein Verlag, →ISBN, page 118:

     […] the capo in a sub-camp in 1940. As a foreman and capo in the quarry he earned the reputation of treating Jewish […]

• CoAP, copa, paco, OPAC, OPCA, Paco, Copa, acop, APCO, ACPO

capo

1. first-person singular present indicative of capar

capo

1. first-person singular present indicative of capar

From Vulgar Latin capus m < Latin caput n. On account of the unlenited /-p-/, presumably borrowed via Italian capo.

capo m

1. head
   • 1877, Antonio Ive, Canti popolari istriani: raccolti a Rovigno, volume 5, Ermanno Loescher, page 40:

     Nun o’ pioün veîsto el pioûn biel capo biondo.

     I haven’t seen a more beautiful blonde head.

• tiesta

From Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput, from Proto-Italic *kaput, from Proto-Indo-European *káput. Doublet of chef.

• IPA^(key): /ˈka.po/
• Rhymes: -apo
• Hyphenation: cà‧po

capo m (plural capi)

1. head

   Synonym: testa

2. boss, chief, leader, master
3. end (of a rope etc.)

   Synonyms: fine, estremità

4. (geography) cape (especially when capitalised/capitalized in placenames)
5. ply
6. buddy
7. (heraldry) chief

capo (invariable)

1. head, chief, leading

   ispettore capo ― chief inspector

• → English: capo
• →? Istriot: capo
• → Spanish: capo
• → Basque: kapo

• paco, pacò, poca

• cāpus (archaic)
• *cappō (reconstructed)

Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep- or *(s)kap- (“to hew, cut, shovel”), from a PIE substrate word that also gave Latin scapulae - see Ancient Greek κόπτω (kóptō), Ancient Greek σκάπτω (skáptō) for further cognates and discussion, as well as Proto-Indo-European *kap-. Alternatively, from another substrate word that also gave Latin caper. In both cases the vocalism requires postulating a substrate origin.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkaː.poː/, [ˈkäːpoː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈka.po/, [ˈkäːpo]

cāpō m (genitive cāpōnis); third declension

1. a capon (castrated cockerel)
2. (in general) a rooster

• pullus
• gallus

• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “cāpus; scapulae”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN

• “capo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• capo in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

• Rhymes: -apu

capo

1. first-person singular present indicative of capar

• IPA^(key): /ˈkapo/ [ˈka.po]
• Rhymes: -apo
• Syllabification: ca‧po

Borrowed from Italian capo (“head”). Related to cabo.

capo m (plural capos)

1. gangster
2. by extension, a very able person at doing something
3. boss, chief

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

capo

1. first-person singular present indicative of capar

• “capo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy, 2023 November 28