captaen

Irish

Alternative forms

• caiftín (Ulster)
• caiptín, captaoin

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French capitaine, from Late Latin capitāneus, from Latin caput (“head”).

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /kɑpˠˈt̪ˠeːn̪ˠ/

Noun

captaen m (genitive singular captaein, nominative plural captaein)

1. captain (person lawfully in command of a ship or other vessel)
   • 1939, Peig Sayers, “Inghean an Cheannaidhe”, in Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, Description d’un parler irlandais de Kerry (Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Études; 270) (overall work in French), Paris: Librairie Honoré Champion, page 193:

     Ba ghnáthach le captaen óg luinge teacht ar cuaird go tig an cheannaidhe go minic agus do bhíodh sé ana-cheanamhail ar Mháire Bhán.

     A young ship’s captain had the custom of often visiting the merchant’s house and he was very fond of Máire Bhán.

2. captain (military rank)
3. captain (member of a sports team designated to make decisions)

Declension

Declension of captaen

First declension

Bare forms: Case Singular Plural Nominative captaen captaein Vocative a chaptaein a chaptaena Genitive captaein captaen Dative captaen captaein

Forms with the definite article: Case Singular Plural Nominative an captaen na captaein Genitive an chaptaein na gcaptaen Dative leis an gcaptaen don chaptaen leis na captaein

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
captaen	chaptaen	gcaptaen
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “caiptín”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “captaoin”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 117
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “captaen”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN