cabeça

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *capittia, variant of capitia, plural of Latin capitium.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kəˈβɛ.sə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [kəˈbə.sə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [kaˈbe.sa]

cabeça f (plural cabeces)

1. (botany) bulb, head (of garlic)

   Synonym: bulb

• cabeçar
• cabeçuda

• cap
• cabeç

• “cabeça”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

cabeça f (plural cabeças, reintegrationist norm)

1. reintegrationist spelling of cabeza

• “cabeça” in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (2014).

From Vulgar Latin capitia, from the neuter plural accusative of capitium (“covering for the head”) (reanalyzed as a feminine singular), from caput (“head”).

cabeça f (plural cabeças)

1. (anatomy, Provençal) head
2. mind
3. (Gascony) plough

• descabeçar
• cabecejar

• Diccionari General de la Lenga Occitana, L’Academia occitana – Consistòri del Gai Saber, 2008-2024, page 136.

Inherited from Latin capitium, from caput + -ium. Since the 12th century in Latin charters.

Cognate with Old Spanish cabeça

• IPA^(key): /kaˈbet͡sa/
• Rhymes: -et͡sa
• Hyphenation: ca‧be‧ça

cabeça f (plural cabeças)

1. head (part of the body which contains the brain)
2. head (leader or expert)

   Synonym: cabeceira

3. (vulgar) glans penis
4. (metonymic) head (measure word for livestock)
5. hill; hilltop

   Synonym: cabeço

6. capital city

   Synonym: capital

7. boundary of a property

   Synonyms: cabeceira, cabeceiro

• Fala: cabeza
• Galician: cabeza
• Portuguese: cabeça (see there for further descendants)

• Manuel Ferreiro (2014–2025) “cabeça”, in Universo Cantigas. Edición crítica da poesía medieval galego-portuguesa (in Galician), A Coruña: University of A Coruña, →ISSN
• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “cabeça”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “cabeça”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

From Latin capitia, from the neuter plural accusative of capitium.

• IPA^(key): /kaˈbetsa/

cabeça f

1. head
   • ca. 1376-1396, Juan Fernández de Heredia, Ystorias de Orosio:

     Diuso de aquesti tiempo, Quintilio Vario faziendose subdito de los subiectos con marauellosa soberuia et grant auaricia, de los germanos qui se rebellauan fue destruido con tres legiones. El qual tajamiento et mortaldat de la republica Cesar Agusto la tenia en tanto por mala et grieu, que muchas vegadas por el grant dolor que dende auia, dando con la cabeça a la pared cridaua: "Quintilio Vario riendeme las legiones que yo te di."

     Before this time, Quinctilius Varus, having become a subject of the conquered with marvelous arrogance and great greed, was destroyed by German rebels along with three legions. Augustus took this reduction [in the forces], this mortality of the Republic, so badly and with such grief, that he would often, in great pain, hit his head against a wall shouting, "Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!"

• Nagore Laín, Francho (2021) Vocabulario de la crónica de San Juan de la Peña (versión aragonesa, s. XIV), Zaragoza: Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza, page 61

From Vulgar Latin capitia, from the neuter plural accusative of capitium (“covering for the head”) (reanalyzed as a feminine singular), from caput (“head”).

• IPA^(key): /kaˈbet͡sa/

cabeça f (plural cabeças)

1. head
   • c. 1200, Almeric, Fazienda de Ultramar, f. 6v. col. 2:

     dixo ſõnaua q̃ tenẏa / .iij. canaſtiellos. blãcos ſobre / mẏ cabeça. en el canaſtiello ſu / ſano auẏa del comer de phara / on. E las aues del cielo comien / del canaſtiello ſobre mẏ. cabeça

     he said: "I dreamt I had three white baskets on my head, and on the uppermost basket was all that which the pharaoh ate, and the birds of the sky ate from the basket upon my head."

• cabdal
• cabdiello

• Ladino:

  Hebrew script: קאב׳יסה

  Latin script: kavesa

• Spanish: cabeza

• cabêça (obsolete)

From Old Galician-Portuguese cabeça, from Vulgar Latin capitia, from the neuter plural (reanalyzed as a feminine singular) of Latin capitium, from caput.

• (Northeast Brazil) IPA^(key): /kaˈbe.sa/
• (Rural Central Brazil) IPA^(key): /kɐˈbe.sɐ/

• Audio (Brazil):

  (file)

• Audio (Northern Portugal):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -esɐ
• Hyphenation: ca‧be‧ça

cabeça f (plural cabeças)

1. (anatomy) head (part of the body)
2. head (topmost, foremost, or leading part)
   • 2015, Paul Krugman, Robin Wells, Microeconomia: Uma abordagem moderna, Elsevier Brasil, →ISBN, page 70:

     Em vez de cada um dos 10 operários fabricar um alfinete do início ao fim, cada um se especializava em uma das muitas etapas da fabricação de um alfinete: Um homem estica o arame, outro o endireita, outro o corta, outro faz a ponta, um quinto o amassa na ponta para receber a cabeça.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. (figurative) sense

cabeça m or f by sense (plural cabeças)

1. (colloquial) head (leader, boss)

• “cabeça”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “cabeça”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

cabeça f (plural cabeças)

1. archaic spelling of cabeza