Capón / capo
I always thought a Capón was just a big capo, a big mafia boss. Is it a knock on the head, like you hit somebody on the head and can't mean bigtime mafia boss?
Gracias.
5 Answers
Well, one meaning is the same as its English cognate, capon.
Your definition sounds like the 2nd definition of the R A E dictionary.
- m. coloq. Golpe dado en la cabeza con el nudillo del dedo corazón.
Makes me think of Al Capone. I wonder if that name was coincidence.
The word "capo," meaning "head" in the sense of "chief" or "boss" in English, is derived directly from the Italian word for "head," and according to the OED, this word has only been in the English lexicon for about the last 50 years or so. Spanish, it seems has also borrowed this term from Italian with the result being that the word "capo" basically means the same thing in both English and Spanish.
The Italian word is itself derived from the Latin word "caput" meaning "head" or "chieftan." Similarly, the word "cabeza," in Spanish, is derived from the diminutive form ("capit?a") of the Latin word "caput." In any case, each word shows similarity in usage, that is, in it's respective language (capo—Italian, head—English and cabeza—Spanish) each can be used to refer to the most prominent member or leader of an organization or group.
In terms of the name "Capone," in Italian, the suffix "-one" is often added to words as an intensifier to indicate largeness. This might, make the name "Capone" (capo + -one) equivalent to something like "Big boss."
Interestingly, The first name "Al," is also identical to the contraction formed by the preposition "a" and the masculine definite article "il," a fact which would make the name "Al Capone" translate literally to something along the lines of "to the big boss."
Of course, I'm sure that this is probably not what his parents intended when they named him Alphonse Capone, but an interesting coincidence nonetheless.
Blockquote 1 m. coloq. Golpe dado en la cabeza con el nudillo del dedo corazón.
That to me is called coscorrón.
Para mí capón es...
Blockquote2. m. Pollo que se castra cuando es pequeño, y se ceba para comerlo.
I agree with QFreed and Chileno. Capón in Spanish comes from "capar", another verb for castrate. Therefore any castrated animal, most usually raised for human consumptions, such as a hog, a chicken, a bull, and so forth, is referred to as "capón".
As you see, a Mafia boss probably would not find it a very flattering term....
Makes me think of Al Capone. I wonder if that name was coincidence.
