caboce

Old French

Alternative forms

• caboche (Anglo-Norman, Picardy, 13th century onwards)

Etymology

From the apparently pejorative prefix ca- +‎ boce (“swelling, lump”, see there for more), but this is disputed. Alternatively a formation from Latin caput (“head”), but the medial p would have regularly lenited to v; this might then require borrowing from another Romance language or lost dialect. Possibly a merger or conflation of the two words.

Noun

caboce oblique singular, f (oblique plural caboces, nominative singular caboce, nominative plural caboces)

1. (anatomy) head

Descendants

• French: caboche
• → Middle English: caboche, cabache, caboch, cabage, caboge (via caboche)
  • English: cabbage
    • Sranan Tongo: kabisi
    • → Abenaki: kabij
    • → Swahili: kabichi
    • → Yoruba: kábéèjì
  • Scots: cabbitch
  • Yola: gaubbach, gubbach, gubbauch

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (caboche, supplement)
• Etymology and history of “caboche”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.