capo

Shortening of capotasto, from Italian.

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

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

capo (plural capos)

1. A movable bar placed across the fingerboard of a guitar and 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

• IPA^(key): /t͡saˈpɔ/

capo

1. second-person singular present imperative of capoj

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 (based on Romance descendants and Germanic borrowings)^[1]

Unknown. Though a connection to Proto-Slavic *skopьcь (“castrated animal; eunuch”) is attractive, there are formal problems with the derivation. The Slavic is clearly derived from *skopiti (“to castrate”), which is likely an inherited root continuing Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep- (albeit itself unclear), but such a root clearly cannot account for the Latin vocalism. The alternative Proto-Indo-European *(s)keh₂p- or *(s)kap- (“to hew, cut?; to shovel”) (compare Ancient Greek σκάπτω (skáptō, “to dig”), Lithuanian skõpti (“to cut, grave”)) is disputed on both formal and semantic grounds. Most likely of substrate origin: the same source may have also given Latin scapulae;^[1] see Ancient Greek κόπτω (kóptō) and Proto-Indo-European *kap- for further possible cognates and discussion. Alternatively, from another substrate word that also gave Latin caper (“he-goat”) if its original meaning was “castrated animal”.^[1] In both cases the semantic connection is weak, however. Less likely, potentially related to Proto-Germanic *habukaz (“hawk”), Proto-Slavic *kobь̀cь (“small bird of prey: falcon ~ sparrowhawk ~ merlin ~ buzzard”) and Albanian gabonjë (“griffon vulture, eagle, hawk”), which may be yet another substrate word or Wanderwort.^[2]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkaː.poː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkaː.po]

cāpō m (genitive cāpōnis); third declension

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

Third-declension noun.

• pullus
• gallus

• “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

   Synonyms: pandillero, gángster

2. (by extension) a very able person at doing something
3. boss, chief

   Synonym: patrón

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

capo

1. first-person singular present indicative of capar

• “capo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• “capo”, in Diccionario de americanismos [Dictionary of Americanisms] (in Spanish), Association of Academies of the Spanish Language [Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española], 2010

• ca pô
• ca-pô

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [kaː˧˧ po˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kaː˧˧ pow˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [kaː˧˧ pow˧˧]
• Phonetic spelling: ca pô

Borrowed from French capot.

capo

1. (automotive) hood; bonnet; the hinged cover over the engine of a motor vehicle

Ultimately from Italian capotasto.

capo

1. (music) capotasto