caput
noun/kəˈpʊt/ · /ˈkæp.ət/
Etymology Learned borrowing from Latin caput (“the head”). Doublet of cape, capo, chef, and chief, and distantly of head and Howth.
3
The top or superior part of a thing.
4
UK The council or ruling body of the University of Cambridge prior to the constitution of 1856.
- D. has been engaged, he tells me, through a course of laborious years, in an investigation into all curious matter connected with the two Universities; and has lately lit upon a MS. collection of charters, relative to C⸺, by which he hopes to settle some disputed points—particularly that long controversy between them as to priority of foundation. The ardor with which he engages in these liberal pursuits, I am afraid, has not met with all the encouragement it deserved, either here, or at C⸺. Your caputs, and heads of colleges, care less than any body else about these questions.1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “Oxford in the Vacation”, in Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 22:
5
Medicine, Sciences Abbreviation, Colloquial, Ellipsis Ellipsis of caput succedaneum.
- Related terms
- capite, caput mortuum, capote