captain

See also: Captain

English

Etymology

Etymology tree
substratebor.?
Proto-Indo-European *kap-?
Proto-Indo-European *kap-
Proto-Indo-European *káput
Proto-Italic *kaput
Latin caput
Proto-Indo-European *-nós
Proto-Italic *-nosder.
Proto-Italic *-ānos
Latin -ānus
Proto-Indo-European *-éyos
Proto-Italic *-ejos
Proto-Italic *-eos
Latin -eus
Latin -āneus
Late Latin capitāneuslbor.
Old French capitainebor.
Middle English capitain
English captain

    From Middle English capitain, capteyn, from Old French capitaine, from Late Latin capitāneus, from Latin caput (“head”) (English cap). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-. Doublet of chieftain, also from Old French.

    Pronunciation

    • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkæp.tɪn/, /ˈkæp.tən/
    • Audio (Southern England):(file)
    • (US, Australia) IPA(key): /ˈkæp.tən/
    • Audio (US):(file)
    • (naval, informal) IPA(key): /ˈkæp.ən/, [ˈkæpn̩], [ˈkæpm̩]
    • Audio (UK):(file)
    • Rhymes: (US, General Australian) -æptən
    • Homophone: captan (one pronunciation)

    Noun

    captain (plural captains)

    1. A chief or leader.
      • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew ij:
        For out of the shal come a captaine, whych shall govern my people israhel.
      • 1810, Edward Forster, The Arabian Nights, volume V, London: William Miller, page 186:
        Morgiana by this means discovered, that her master, who supposed he was giving a night's lodging to an oil merchant only, had afforded shelter to thirty-eight robbers, including the pretended merchant, their captain.
      • 1929, Rudyard Kipling, The English Way‎[1]:
        Stand up-stand up, Northumberland! / I bid you answer true, / If England's King has under his hand / A Captain as good as you?
    2. The person lawfully in command of a ship or other vessel.
      The captain is the last man to leave a sinking ship.
    3. An army officer with a rank between the most senior grade of lieutenant and major.
      • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
        "A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there. […]."
    4. A naval officer with a rank between commander and commodore.
    5. A commissioned officer in the United States Navy, Coast Guard, NOAA Corps, or PHS Corps of a grade superior to a commander and junior to a rear admiral (lower half). A captain is equal in grade or rank to a United States Army, Marine Corps, or Air Force colonel.
    6. (aviation) A rank qualifying an airline pilot to act as pilot in command of a two-pilot flight crew.
      Coordinate terms: first officer, copilot
    8. The player on a sports team who is appointed or elected to lead it, acting as the team’s spokesperson to officials and typically taking a leading role in on-field decisions.
      • 2000, Gregory Allen Howard, Remember the Titans:
        Captain's supposed to be the leader, right?
      • 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:
        As Di Matteo celebrated and captain John Terry raised the trophy for the fourth time, the Italian increased his claims to become the permanent successor to Andre Villas-Boas by landing a trophy.
    9. The leader of a group of workers.
      John Henry said to the captain, "A man ain't nothing but a man."
      • 1990, Marshall C. Eakin, A British Enterprise in Brazil:
        The assistant mine captains then reported to the mine captain in charge of all underground operations and subordinate only to the superintendent himself.
    10. The head boy of a school.
    11. A maître d', a headwaiter.
      • 1977, Don Felder, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey, lyricists, "Hotel California",
        So I called up the Captain, "Please bring me my wine." / He said: "We haven't had that spirit here since 1969."
    12. (Southern US) An honorific title given to a prominent person. See colonel.

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

    Descendants

    • Sranan Tongo: kapten
    • → Arabic: كبتن (kabtin)
    • → Burmese: ကက်ပတိန် (kakpa.tin)
    • → Hijazi Arabic: كبتن (kabtin)
    • → Hawaiian: kāpena
    • → Hindi: कप्तान (kaptān)
    • → Japanese: キャプテン (kyaputen)
    • → Korean: 캡틴 (kaeptin)
    • → Māori: kāpene
    • → Swahili: kapteni
    • → Urdu: کپتان (kaptān)

    Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
    Translations to be checked

    Verb

    captain (third-person singular simple present captains, present participle captaining, simple past and past participle captained)

    1. (intransitive) To act as captain
    2. (transitive) To exercise command of a ship, aircraft or sports team.
      • 2026 September 8, William DeLong, Cara Johnson, “How The RMS Olympic Narrowly Averted The Tragic Fate Of The Titanic”, in All That's Interesting‎[2], archived from the original on 8 September 2026:
        The Olympic carried 1,313 passengers on its first trip across the Atlantic. It was captained by Edward Smith — the same captain who went down with the Titanic less than a year later.

    Translations

    Anagrams

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