‖ caput
(ˈkæpʌt)
[L.; = head.]
1. Sometimes used in technical language instead of the vernacular ‘head’ or ‘top’; esp. in Anat. In Bot. the peridium of certain fungi.
† 2. Short for caput mortuum, q.v.
† 3. The former ruling body or council of the University of Cambridge.
| 1716 Kennet in Monk Life Bentley (1833) I. 423 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 Cambridge 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 Lamb Elia (1860) 16 Your caputs, and heads of colleges care less than any body else. 1830 Bp. Monk Life Bentley (1833) I. 423 The..mistake of confounding the Caput Senatus with the Heads of Colleges. |
4. Occas. used in certain L. phrases in Astron., 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 2; Caput Medusæ, 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.
| 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch, Hen. V, lxxxii, 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 Macaulay Crit. & Hist. Essays (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. |
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Add: 5. Obstetr. Short for *caput succedaneum n.
| 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. |