Latin for "head." Also, the entomological source of the German kaputt. The story:

Germanic burial squads during the Middle Ages counted each corpse as a "head" or "caput," so the word came to express, in German, anything broken, wreaked, or unserviceable like... say... a dead body.

Ca"put, n.; pl. Capita (#). [L., the head.]

1. Anat.

The head; also, a knoblike protuberance or capitulum.

2.

The top or superior part of a thing.

3. Eng.

The council or ruling body of the University of Cambridge prior to the constitution of 1856.

Your caputs and heads of colleges. Lamb.

Caput mortuum (). [L., dead head.] Old Chem. The residuum after distillation or sublimation; hence, worthless residue.

 

© Webster 1913.