capo

English translation: from the beginning of

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

Italian term or phrase:	da capo
English translation:	from the beginning of
Entered by:	Angela Arnone

12:36 Oct 24, 2001

Italian to English translations [Non-PRO]
Art/Literary

Italian term or phrase: capo

" da capo" in a piece of sheetmusic. What does capo literally mean? "the head"?

Bob

da capo:

Explanation:
"capo" means head, but figuratively means beginning (the beginning of something)
ex: in Italian you say "capo d'anno" which means the beginning of the year (the first day of the year), so "da capo" means: to the beginning of ...
I hope this is what you wanted to know

Selected response from:

Rita Cavaiani
Local time: 14:21

Grading comment

Thanks - that was helpful
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +6

repeat from the beginning

PML

4 +2

da capo:

Rita Cavaiani

Da capo

Nicola (Mr.) Nobili

go to the head of the class!

Abu Amaal (X)

Discussion entries: 1

Answers

4 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +6

repeat from the beginning

Explanation:
"Da capo" is a musical term directing the performer to repeat a phrase or to return to the beginning of the piece.

PML
Local time: 20:21
PRO pts in pair: 62

2 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

da capo:

Rita Cavaiani
Local time: 14:21
Native speaker of:

French,

Italian
PRO pts in pair: 43

Grading comment

Thanks - that was helpful

7 hrs confidence:

go to the head of the class!

Explanation:
as we say.

Here's more than you can possibly want to know:

In Italian, you have capo and testa for "head".

capo from Latin caput
related, distantly, to German Kopf,
French chef, English chief, Spanish jefe ...
Tends to take on a lot of those metaphorical senses around "top" in various languages.

and testa from Latin testa a shell or carapace. (brain-box ...)

so ...
da capo: from the top
and in English:
head of the class, head of the line ...
and
"take a little off the top" (haircut)

make sense?

Abu Amaal (X)
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 29

13 hrs confidence:

Da capo

Explanation:
In Italian, "capo" also means "beginning of a paragraph", "paragraph" being "capoverso". Therefore, if you say "da capo", you mean "(let's go back) to the beginning". Metaphorically, it can be used in a whole range of different situations, whenever you restart something.
"Capo" is also used, in legal texts, for example, as a synonym of "paragraph", but this use is rather infrequent nowadays.
In music, of course, Italian words and phrases are always left in the original.

Nicola (Mr.) Nobili
Italy
Local time: 20:21
Native speaker of:

Italian
PRO pts in pair: 68

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English translation: from the beginning of

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