capias

English

WOTD – 20 April 2012

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin capiās (“you should seize, you are to seize”), from capiō (“to seize”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkapɪəs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪ.pi.əs/, /ˈkæ.pi.əs/

Noun

capias (plural capiases)

1. (law) An arrest warrant; a writ commanding officers to take a specified person or persons into custody. [from 15th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     All which when Cupid heard, he by and by / In great displeasure wild a Capias / Should issue forth t'attach that scornefull lasse.

Usage notes

• The term is mostly used in the singular.

Translations

arrest warrant — see arrest warrant

Latin

Verb

capiās

1. second-person singular present active subjunctive of capiō