Dictionary › adjective › *kaput- › kaputt

kaputt

(adjective)
Word type: adjective
Based on: *kaput-

Meanings

1.
broken
(For devices and also friendships or relationships. But it doesn't sound idiomatic for hearts. The origin of the meaning is a French expression that was about being incapacitated by having a cape over your eyes.)
How useful:
Opposite (closest): ganz
2.
exhausted
(Colloquial term for being really tired.)
How useful:

Examples

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German Word of the Day - " ganz"

A fun look at the meanings of "ganz", its super common use as intensifier, a really random twist. And my toilet paper situation #notgood


Word Family

Root: *kaput-

The core idea of this root was:

head

The root is a subbranch of the root *kap-, which was about grasping, containing. The idea of “head” comes from the “head” essentially being a bowl, a container for the brain.

The notion of head is still visible in most of the offspring in today’s English.
Here’s a little (incomplete) overview:

  • head
  • Capo (Latin for “head”)
  • captain (“head”)
  • chef, chief, chieftain (“head”)
  • capital (“head city”)
  • cattle (“what you own, are the boss of”)
  • capital (“what you own, what you’re the captain of”)
  • decapitate (“remove head”)
  • cabbage (looks like a head)
  • chapter (originally “little headline, section”
  • capitulate (originally “drawing up piece terms”, based on the idea of chapter)
  • recapitulate (“go over the chapters”)
  • biceps, triceps (“two-head, three-head”)
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