caption

caption
caption (n.) late 14c., "taking, seizure," from O.Fr. capcion "arrest, capture, imprisonment," from L. capito (gen. captionis) "a catching, seizing, holding," from captus, pp. of capere "to take" (see CAPABLE (Cf. capable)). Sense evolved from headings of legal indictments involving seizure ("Certificate of caption"), the word being taken to mean the beginning of any document; thus "heading of a chapter or section of an article" (1789), and, especially in U.S., "description or title below an illustration" (1919).

Etymology dictionary. 2014.

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  • caption — cap·tion / kap shən/ n [Medieval Latin captio act of taking, from Latin capere to take]: the part of a legal document that states the court, the names of the parties, the docket number, the title of the document, and sometimes the name of the… …   Law dictionary

  • Caption — Cap tion, n. [L. captio, fr. caper to take. In senses 3 and 4, perhaps confounded in meaning with L. caput a head. See {Capacious}.] 1. A caviling; a sophism. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] This doctrine is for caption and contradiction. Bacon. [1913… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Caption — may refer to: *Caption (comics convention), a small press and independent comic convention held annually in Oxford, England *Closed captioning, used to provide the text of a show s audio portion to those who may have trouble hearing it *To see… …   Wikipedia

  • caption — ► NOUN 1) a title or brief explanation appended to an illustration or cartoon. 2) a piece of text appearing on screen as part of a film or television broadcast. ► VERB ▪ provide with a caption. ORIGIN originally in the sense «capture»: from Latin …   English terms dictionary

  • caption — [kap′shən] n. [ME capcioun < OFr capcion < L captio < pp. of capere, take: see HAVE] 1. Archaic seizure 2. Law a) a part of a legal instrument, such as an indictment, showing where, when, and by what authority it was executed b) a… …   English World dictionary

  • Caption — Caption, 1) verfängliche Art zu fragen; 2) Trugschluß; daher Captiös, vieldeutig, verfänglich: Captiöse Fragen, Fragen, welche so eingerichtet sind, daß der Befragte, indem er darauf antwortet, zugleich mittelbar eine Thatsache bestätigt, die… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • caption — *inscription, legend …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • caption — Fowler called this ‘rare in British use, and might well be rarer’. Despite this disapproval (see lost causes), it is now a common word on both sides of the Atlantic, meaning (1) a title below an illustration and (2) a heading to a newspaper… …   Modern English usage

  • caption — [n] heading; short description explanation, head, inscription, legend, rubric, subtitle, title, underline; concept 283 …   New thesaurus

  • caption — I UK [ˈkæpʃ(ə)n] / US noun [countable] Word forms caption : singular caption plural captions a) words printed near or on a picture that explain something about the picture b) a joke that is printed underneath a humorous drawing or photograph II… …   English dictionary

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