capelo

From Old Galician-Portuguese capelo, from Early Medieval Latin cappellus (“hat”), diminutive from Late Latin cappa. Compare chapeu, which came through French.

• IPA^(key): /kaˈpelo̝/

capelo m (plural capelos)

1. (botany) navelwort, pennywort (Umbilicus rupestris)

   Synonyms: conchelo, couselo

2. (archaic) helmet
   • 1290, Clarinda de Azevedo Maia (ed.), História do galego-português. Estado linguístico da Galiza e do Noroeste de Portugal do século XII ao século XVI (com referência á situação do galego moderno). Coimbra: I.N.I.C., page 138:

     mando a Ares d'Alcantara o meu perponto, o meu lorigon, a ma gorgeyra τ cen mr. da guerra en dineyros polo que deleſ oue τ o meu capelo do fferro

     I left Ares d'Alcántara my padded jerkin, my mail, my gorget, a hundred maravedis of war for what I had of them, and my iron helmet

   Synonyms: capacete, elmo

3. hood

• chapeu (“hat”)

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “capelo”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “capelo”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “capelo”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “capelo”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “capelo”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Probably from Old Galician-Portuguese capelo, from Early Medieval Latin cappellus (“hat”),^[1][2][3] diminutive from Late Latin cappa, or less likely through Italian cappello^[4] (although this probably applies in the sense of a cardinal's red hat). Doublet of chapéu, which came through French.

• Hyphenation: ca‧pe‧lo

capelo m (plural capelos)

1. cowl (monk’s hood)
2. red hat worn by cardinals, or a galero (hat worn by clergy)
3. knit cap worn by nuns or widows
4. dossel
5. one with a doctorate
6. a type of fish

• capa

• capuz

• “capelo”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from Italian cappello, from Early Medieval Latin cappellus. Doublet of capillo, which was inherited, and of chapeo and chapó, which came via French.

capelo m (plural capelos)

1. red hat worn by cardinals

• “capelo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025