cabestan

French

cabestan

Etymology

From Middle French cabestant, of uncertain origin. Either from Old Occitan cabestran (“instrument to coil cords”), a noun use of present participle of verb cabestrar, from cabestre (“pulley rope”) ; or from Spanish cabestrante, cabrestante, from cabestrar (“to bind with a halter”), from cabestro (“halter”), from Latin capistrum (“halter”), from capere (“to hold”) (see capacious); or perhaps the Spanish is from Latin caper (“goat”) + -stans, present participle of stare (“to stand”); compare French chèvre (“she-goat”), also a machine for raising heavy weights.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.bɛs.tɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

cabestan m (plural cabestans)

1. capstan (vertical cleated drum or cylinder)

Derived terms

• nœud de cabestan

Further reading

• “cabestan”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French cabestan.

Noun

cabestan n (plural cabestane)

1. capstan (vertical cleated drum or cylinder)

Declension

Declension of cabestan

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	cabestan	cabestanul		cabestane	cabestanele
genitive-dative	cabestan	cabestanului		cabestane	cabestanelor
vocative	cabestanule			cabestanelor