caputn.
/ˈkapʌt/Categories »
1. Sometimes used in technical language instead of the vernacular ‘head’ or ‘top’; esp. in Anatomy. In Botany the peridium of certain fungi.
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society > education > educational administration > university administration > [noun] > governing body
potestate1530
Regent House1573
seniority1687
caput1716
senate1736
senatus1835
1716 W. Kennet Let. 24 Nov. in J. H. Monk Life of R. Bentley (1830) xii. 331 The Caput, as they call them, complain much of a breach of their privilege, that it was not laid before them preparatory to its being laid before the Senate.
1797 Cambr. Univ. Cal. 144 The vice-chancellor, a doctor of divinity, a doctor of laws, a doctor of physic, a regent master of arts, and a non-regent master of arts, form the caput. They are to consider and determine what graces are proper to be brought before the university.
1823 C. Lamb Oxf. in Vacation in Elia 22 Your caputs, and heads of colleges, care less than any body else.
1830 J. H. Monk Life R. Bentley xii. 332 The..mistake of confounding the Caput Senatus with the Heads of Colleges.
4. Occasionally used in certain Latin phrases in Astronomy, etc., as Caput Draconis, i.e. Dragon's Head, a star in Draco; caput lupinum (lit., wolf's head), an outlaw: see wolf's-head n. 2; Caput Medusae, the star Algol or Medusa's Head in Perseus; also a species of fossil Pentacrinite; caput radicis, the crown of the root in a plant.
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society > authority > punishment > outlawry > [noun] > outlaw
outlawOE
friendless manOE
wolf's-head?c1300
waithmanc1425
banished man1495
broken man1528
proscript1576
horner1590
outlawed1644
caput lupinum1837
ronin1858
society > society and the community > social relations > lack of social communication or relations > exclusion from society > [noun] > rendering outcast > outcast > outlaw
flemeOE
outlawOE
wolf's-head?c1300
waithmanc1425
caput lupinum1837
ronin1858
owl-hoot1934
a1657 G. Daniel Trinarchodia: Henry V lxxxii, in Poems (1878) IV. 121 Irresolution, doth as Dreadfull rise As Caput Algot in Nativities.
1797 Encycl. Brit. IV. 156/1 Anciently an outlawed felon was said to have caput lupinum.]
1837 T. B. Macaulay Crit. & Hist. Ess. (1843) II. 393 That a valetudinarian..should be treated as a caput lupinum because he could not read the Timæus without a headache, was a notion which the humane spirit of the English school of wisdom altogether rejected.
1888 Guardian 4 Apr. 488/2 The National League, if it did not formally decree the death of Fitzmaurice for disobedience to its orders, at least proclaimed him as a Caput Lupinum.
Draft additions 1993
5. Obstetrics. Short for caput succedaneum n.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders associated with age > [noun] > neonatal
nine-days disease1797
caput succedaneum1839
sclerema1858
caput1871
1871 A. Milne Princ. & Pract. Midwifery xvi. 169 This caput indicates correctly the presenting part.
1924 S. J. Cameron et al. Glasgow Man. Obstetr. xxi. 453 In face presentations the caput is formed on the soft tissues of the face.
1981 S. Kitzinger Experience of Childbirth (ed. 4) x. 252 The baby's head was born, the size of a pumpkin, not a grapefruit, as it had a caput.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1888; most recently modified version published online December 2019).
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n.a1657