chapter: [13] Ultimately, chapter is the same word as capital. Both came via Old French from Latin capitulum ‘small head’, a diminutive form of caput ‘head’, but whereas capital represents a late, 12th-century borrowing into French in ecclesiastical and legal contexts, chapter is far earlier and therefore shows more differences: in Old French, capitulum became chapitle, later chapitre.
Already in Latin the word was used for ‘section of a book’; the semantic development seems to parallel English head ‘category, section’ (as in ‘heads of agreement’) and the derived heading. The ecclesiastical use of chapter, as a collective term for the canons of a cathedral, originated in the canons’ practice of meeting to read a chapter of Scripture. Latin capitulum in the sense ‘head of a discourse, chapter’ produced the derivative capitulāre ‘draw up under separate headings’.
When its past participle passed into English in the 16th century as the verb capitulate, it was still with this meaning, and it did not narrow down to the more specific ‘make terms of surrender’ until the 17th century. => capital, capitulate, cattle, recapitulate
chapter (n.)
c. 1200, "main division of a book," from Old French chapitre (12c.) "chapter (of a book), article (of a treaty), chapter (of a cathedral)," alteration of chapitle, from Late Latin capitulum, diminutive of caput (genitive capitis) "head" (see capitulum). Sense of "local branch" (1815) is from cathedral sense (late 15c.), which seems to trace to convocations of canons at cathedral churches, during which the rules of the order by chapter, or a chapter (capitulum) of Scripture, were read aloud to the assembled. Chapter and verse "in full and thoroughly" (1620s) is a reference to Scripture.
实用例句
1. Uncle Richard intoned a chapter from the Bible and improvised a prayer.
理查德叔叔吟诵了《圣经》中的一章，又即兴作了一段祈祷文。
来自柯林斯例句
2. We saw in Chapter 16 how annual cash budgets are produced.
在第16章我们了解了年度现金预算是怎样制订的。
来自柯林斯例句
3. This point is developed further at the end of this chapter.
这一点在本章结尾处有进一步阐释。
来自柯林斯例句
4. See Chapter 7 below for further comments on the textile industry.
有关纺织业的更多评论请参看下面第7章。
来自柯林斯例句
5. For a discussion of biology and sexual politics, see chapter 4.
