Cognate Set 887 – Meaning: hair

IE-CoR reference form:
capillus
IE-CoR reference language:
Latin
Ideophonic:
no
Parallel derivation:
no
Justification:
No certain etymology outside of Italic (Ernout & Meillet 1985:95, de Vaan 2008:89, cf. Meyer-Lübke 1935:153 no. 1628).
Found in clades:
Italic
Revised by:
Matthew Scarborough
Found in 1 clade by 16 lexemes.
Language Lexeme Native script Phonetic Phonemic Notes
136   French cheveu ʃəvø ʃəvø
131   Ladin ciavei tʃaˈvei̯
144   Portuguese cabelo kɐˈβelu kɐˈbelu
137   Walloon dj'vè d͡ʒvɛ d͡ʒvɛ or t͡ʃvɛ
124   Latin capillī kaˈpilliː kaˈpilliː G.pl. capillōrum. Plural noun; capillus = 'single hair of the head'.
141   Catalan cabells kəˈβɛʎs kəˈbɛʎs
129   Italian capelli kaˈpelli kaˈpelli Masculin plural
130   Friulian cjavei caˈvej caˈvej Mpl.
128   Neapolitan capille kaˈpillə kaˈpillə
135   Anglo-Norman cheveil
142   Old Spanish cabello kaˈbeʎo
138   Old Occitan chevelura chevu for the individual fiber that grows from the human head. also: pels/peus; cabeladura
140   Old Catalan cabells kəˈβəʎs kəˈβəʎs
127   Dalmatian: Vegliote kapéi̯ kaˈpej Looks like a Vegliote-Venetian hybrid form, while an alternative form kavi̯úi is a vegliotization of Ven. cavei. The third form, kupli, is uncertain and phonetically unclear.
145   Portuguese: Brazilian cabelo
132   Milanese cavèl kaˈvɛl
References
  • Ernout, Alfred and Meillet, Antoine: 95
    S.v. Lat. capillus 'cheveu, poil de barbe, chevelure des plants, des arbres', reminiscent of caput 'head', but the connection is not obvious formally or semantically.
  • Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm: 153
    Cf. s.v. 1628 Lat. capillus 'Haupthaar'.
  • de Vaan, Michiel: 89
    S.v. Lat. capillus 'hair'. Etymology unclear. Attempts to derive capillus from caput 'head' are formally difficult. From a phonological point of view one expects capillus to be derived from a stem *kap-n- or *kap-r-, but there are no good candidates that have a good semantic match.