▪ I. ˈcaple, capul Obs. exc. dial.
Forms: α. 4–5 capel, 4–6 capil, 5 capylle, 5–6 capill, 6 capyl, 4–7 caple. β. 4–9 capul, 5 capulle, 5–6 capull. In Drayton cauple.
[ME. capel, -il, -yl, -ul, corresponds to Icel. kapall (for kapal-r) nag, hack, mare; also to Ir. capall, capull horse, mare, Gael. capall mare, the relations between which are uncertain; the ultimate source is prob. L. caball-us horse, hack. See also caball, and its variants.
Not in Old Irish (Windisch): Manx has cabbyl, Welsh ceffyl (Davies, not in Pughe), Cornish cevil, kevil, keffyl (also in place names as Nankevil, Penkevil), Breton caval (in Lagadeuc's Catholicon 1499, and in Rostrenen 1732, not in Legonidec). These forms point to no common Celtic source, but to separate adoption from L., Norman Fr., and perh. Eng. The Irish capall was evidently directly from L. caballus. The Icelandic word is chiefly in ecclesiastical documents after 13th c., and may be directly from L., or perh. immed. through Irish. The immediate source of the ME. word is not determined.]
A horse: in ME. chiefly poetical; now only dial.
| c 1290 Land Cokaygne 32 in E.E.P. (1862) 157 Hors, no capil, kowe, no ox. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 1254 Þay wer cagged and kaȝt on capeles al bare. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. iv. 22 Þenne Concience on his Capul Carieth forþ Faste. c 1386 Chaucer Friar's T. 254 Bothe hey and Cart and eek hise caples thre. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 61/2 Capul, or caple, horse, caballus. c 1475 Rauf Coilȝear 114 The ane of ȝow my Capill ta, The vther his [the king's] Coursour alswa. 1547 Salesbury Welsh Dict., Kephyll, a capull. 1600 Holland Livy iii. vii. 1365 note, Grasse and food, for sheepe, caples, and goats. 1603 Drayton Bar. Warres vi. l, Phœbus tooke his lab'ring Teame..To wash his Cauples in the Ocean Streame. 1670 Ray Proverbs 48 It is time to yoke when the cart comes to the caples, Cheshire. 1799 R. Jamieson Pop. Ballads (1806) I. 233 (Jam.) And hark! what capul nicker'd proud? 1819 Scott Ivanhoe xxxviii, I will get me..my neighbour Buthan's good capul. |
2. A name for a hen. rare.
| c 1460 Towneley Myst. 99 Sely Capyll, oure hen, both to and fro She kakyls. |
▪ II. caple
variant of capel.