Kapo
German edit
Alternative forms edit
Pronunciation edit
Audio (file)
Etymology 1 edit
Clipping of Kaporal (Upper German), from Italian caporale (“corporal”), from Italian capo, from Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput.[1] There is some uncertainty about the etymology of the sense "prisoner functionary". Pfeifer connects it to the same etymology as above, however Duden claims an origin in French caporal.[1][2] In favour of Pfeifer is the fact that the first concentration camp, Dachau, was in Upper German territory and many early inmates came from the workers' movement and trade unions,[3] who could have introduced the dialectal term Kapo (“site foreman”) (construction slang).[4][5] Compare also East Franconian Kapo, Rhine Franconian Kapo, Alemannic German Capo, all meaning "foreman". Although plausible, the folk-etymology which assumes a direct loan from Italian capo (“boss, chief”) suggested by occasional spellings Capo, Lagercapo and no-doubt reinforced in later times by the Italian term's dissemination in the wake of the Godfather trilogy has not been substantiated. Doublet of Korporal and (obsolete) Kapo (“military commander”).
Noun edit
Kapo m (strong, genitive Kapos, plural Kapos)
- (military slang) corporal, non-commissioned officer
- Synonym: Unteroffizier
- (Southern Germany, Austria) foreman
- Synonyms: Vorarbeiter, Polier
- (historical, prison slang) kapo, prisoner functionary (a prisoner of a Nazi concentration camp who was given food and privileges in return for supervising other prisoners doing forced labor)
- Synonyms: Funktionshäftling, Lagerkapo, Lagercapo
Declension edit
Descendants edit
- → Arabic: كابو
- → Armenian: կապո (kapo)
- → Breton: kapo
- → Catalan: kapo
- → Czech: kápo
- → Danish: kapo
- → Dutch: kapo
- → English: kapo
- → Persian: کاپو
- → Finnish: kapo
- → French: kapo
- → Galician: kapo
- → Hebrew: קאפו
- → Hungarian: kápó
- → Interlingua: kapo
- → Italian: kapò
- → Norwegian Bokmål: kapo
- → Polish: kapo
- → Portuguese: kapo
- → Russian: капо́ (kapó)
- → Serbo-Croatian: kapo, капо
- → Spanish: kapo
- → Swedish: kapo
- → Thai: คาโพ
- → Ukrainian: ка́по (kápo)
- → Yiddish: קאַפּאָ (kapo)
Etymology 2 edit
Noun edit
Kapo f (genitive Kapo, no plural)
Declension edit
Etymology 3 edit
Borrowed from Italian capo.[1] Doublet of Korporal and Kapo (“corporal; prisoner-overseer”).
Noun edit
Kapo m (strong, genitive Kapos, no plural)
Declension edit
References edit
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Wolfgang Pfeifer, editor (1993), “Kapo”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen (in German), 2nd edition, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN
- ^ “Kapo” in Duden online
- ^ “Die ersten Häftlinge [The First Prisoners]”, in Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte[1] (in German), (Can we date this quote?)
- ^ Kluge, Friedrich (2001) Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache (in German), 24 edition, Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 469
- ^ “Bauleiter Polier”, in Deutscher Bauzeiger[2] (in German), 2023