I just learned an interesting bit of word history via Merriam-Webster’s delightfully discursive entry for caprice:
Etymology
borrowed from French, going back to Middle French, borrowed from Italian capriccio “whim, fancy,” earlier and medieval Tuscan caporiccio “bristling of the hair with fear, shiver of horror, shudder,” probably from capo “head” (going back to Vulgar Latin *capum, re-formation of Latin caput “head”) + riccio “hedgehog,” going back to Latin ērīcius — more at head entry 1, urchin
Note: Italian capriccio has been a word of disputed origin, the principle issue being the peculiar semantic shift from “shiver of horror”—a meaning easily explicable from the compound’s bases “head” and “hedgehog”—to “whim, caprice,” and hence to various further senses. On these grounds M. Cortelazzo and P. Zolli (Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana) consider the entire etymology uncertain, and speculate that two etyma of independent origin have somehow converged phonetically. Cortelazzo and Zolli state that the Sienese poet Cecco Angiolieri (died ca. 1312) used caporiccio in the sense “desire, wish” (“desiderio, voglia”), but in the sole occurrence of the word in the sonnets attributed to him, the meaning is actually far from clear. With this use set aside, the sense “whim, fancy” is not attested before the sixteenth century according to the Lessico etimologico italiano (vol. 9, column 1055), when the word was borrowed by French. The earlier meaning “shiver of horror,” first attested as a translation of Latin horror by the Florentine author Bono Giamboni (died ca. 1292), is apparently rare in Italian after the eighteenth century, but derivatives such as raccapricciarsi “to be horrified,” raccapriccio “horror, disgust,” are still current. The sense “whim, fancy” has suggested a connection with capra “goat,” an animal stereotypically known for its sudden leaps (compare capriole). The lexicographer Francesco Alunno, in Ricchezze della lingua volgare sopra il Boccaccio (1543), notes both meanings of the word without attempting to reconcile them: “And a sudden and unreasoning inclination is called capriccio, such as seems to come in the manner of goats, which all leap if one leaps. Likewise those shudders, shivers of cold that appear at the beginning of a still doubtful fever are called capricci.” (“Et Capriccio si chiama un’ appetito subito et senza rasone, tale, qual pare che venga alle Capre; che se una salta tutte l’altre saltano. Item Capricci si chiamano quei ribrezzi, griccioli del gielo, che vengono nel principio della febre anchora incerta.”) Whatever its etymology, caporiccio/capriccio is likely at least as old as the thirteenth century, given its rich attestation in dialects throughout the Italian peninsula, as documented in Lessico etimologico italiano.
I love all the detail, but I note with extreme disapproval the use of “principle” in place of the correct “principal.” Where have all the copyeditors gone? (The OED’s 1888 entry adds no useful information in the etymology but does note “About 1700 ˈcaprice was a usual accentuation; Pope rhymed the word with vice.”)
About 1700 ˈcaprice was a usual accentuation; Pope rhymed the word with vice.
“Cap rice”?? My hair is bristling with horror.
“Capricious” is in recent generations I think sort of inherently pejorative, but whoever at General Motors named the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Caprice apparently didn’t think that extended to the noun. I am now dimly remembering that my mom got a Caprice (’81, maybe?) as a replacement after 16-year-old me totaled her ’77 Impala after an unfortunate winter-night’s encounter with black ice.
Fittingly, I happened to read this post while listening to a violin piece by Paganini.
What’s the big semantic shift from “shiver (of horror)” to “whim?” They seem next-door neighbors to me. I can easily imagine an English idiom along the lines of “I had a shiver, and went and bought that dress in the window.”
Also, in the future, please put all mentions of Alexander Pope rhyming things behind a content warning. It causes me irreparable psychic harm every time I am reminded of his translation of the Iliad.
So caprice is horripilation.
I was sort of hoping for an astrological connection with Capricorn, but alas, they are not reckoned to be particularly whimsical, or governed by the moon.
Has anyone else suffered the caprice of the Hat web-server recently? A number of times in the last few days I’ve been unable to load the site.
Yes, I’ve contacted my hosting service about it but they haven’t gotten back to me.
Good luck. Sorry you have to go through a hassle for us all.
Does the “capo” in “capo riccio” denote the hedgehog’s head or the human’s? The prickliest parts of the two animals are the back and the back of the neck respectively, rather than the head.
@mollymooly: The sense I inferred was, “The hair on your head stands up, like quills on a hedgehog.”
Same here.
Buli has a proverb:
Yueng-peng a pisi piema kan paai kadek lo-kpak-a.
“The hedgehog collects arrows but has not got its own quiver.”
Sadly, Kröger’s nice dictionary gives you no clue as to just when you might deploy this proverb. (It’s vaguely reminiscent of some of the less transparent verses in Proverbs the Book.)
The Gulimancema proverb
Gudibiga kan pua nikuli.
“[Even] a little hedgehog doesn’t get punched.”
has more obvious applications, though.
@de
Just guessing:
1. CONVINCES OTHERS TO PROVIDE SUPPORT (quiver)
2. IF YOU BUILD IT (arrows) HE (quiver)
WILL COME
3. FUR COAT (arrows) AND NO KNICKERS (quiver)
I think these lead to an Ur-sense
0. BE PREPARED OR DEPEND ON LUCK.