Kapo

Significado (Inglés)

1. (masculine, slang, strong) corporal, non-commissioned officer
2. (Austria, Southern-Germany, masculine, strong) foreman
3. (historical, masculine, slang, strong) kapo, prisoner functionary (a prisoner of a Nazi concentration camp who was given food and privileges in return for supervising other prisoners doing forced labor)

Conceptos

cabo

🔚

jefe

caporal

Kapo

Sinónimos

Vorarbeiter

Polier

Boss

Chefin

Sprecher der Geschworenen

Rottenführer

Traducciones

kapo

kapo

ganger

caporal

chef

contremaître

directeur

caporal

contremaïtre

contremaitre

caporeparto

caposquadra

Kapò

Kapo

Etimología (Inglés)

Clipping of Kaporal (Upper German), from Italian caporale (“corporal”), from Italian capo, from Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput. There is some uncertainty about the etymology of the sense "prisoner functionary". Pfeifer connects it to the same etymology as above, however Duden claims an origin in French caporal. In favour of Pfeifer is the fact that the first concentration camp, Dachau, was in Upper German territory and many early inmates came from the workers' movement and trade unions, who could have introduced the dialectal term Kapo (“site foreman”) (construction slang). Compare also East Franconian Kapo, Rhine Franconian Kapo, Alemannic German Capo, all meaning "foreman". Although plausible, the folk-etymology which assumes a direct loan from Italian capo (“boss, chief”) suggested by occasional spellings Capo, Lagercapo and no-doubt reinforced in later times by the Italian term's dissemination in the wake of the Godfather trilogy has not been substantiated. Doublet of Korporal and (obsolete) Kapo (“military commander”).