chapter
pronunciation
How to pronounce chapter in British English:
UK [ˈtʃæptə(r)]
How to pronounce chapter in American English:
US [ˈtʃæptər]
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- Noun:
- a subdivision of a written work; usually numbered and titled
- any distinct period in history or in a person's life
- a local branch of some fraternity or association
- an ecclesiastical assembly of the monks in a monastery or even of the canons of a church
- a series of related events forming an episode
Word Origin
- chapter
- chapter: [13] Ultimately, chapter is the same word as capital. Both came via Old French from Latin capitulum ‘small head’, a diminutive form of caput ‘head’, but whereas capital represents a late, 12th-century borrowing into French in ecclesiastical and legal contexts, chapter is far earlier and therefore shows more differences: in Old French, capitulum became chapitle, later chapitre.Already in Latin the word was used for ‘section of a book’; the semantic development seems to parallel English head ‘category, section’ (as in ‘heads of agreement’) and the derived heading. The ecclesiastical use of chapter, as a collective term for the canons of a cathedral, originated in the canons’ practice of meeting to read a chapter of Scripture. Latin capitulum in the sense ‘head of a discourse, chapter’ produced the derivative capitulāre ‘draw up under separate headings’.When its past participle passed into English in the 16th century as the verb capitulate, it was still with this meaning, and it did not narrow down to the more specific ‘make terms of surrender’ until the 17th century.=> capital, capitulate, cattle, recapitulate
- chapter (n.)
- c. 1200, "main division of a book," from Old French chapitre (12c.) "chapter (of a book), article (of a treaty), chapter (of a cathedral)," alteration of chapitle, from Late Latin capitulum, diminutive of caput (genitive capitis) "head" (see capitulum). Sense of "local branch" (1815) is from cathedral sense (late 15c.), which seems to trace to convocations of canons at cathedral churches, during which the rules of the order by chapter, or a chapter (capitulum) of Scripture, were read aloud to the assembled. Chapter and verse "in full and thoroughly" (1620s) is a reference to Scripture.
Example
- 1. Thinking time is a significant piece of chapter 5 .
- 2. For argentine society , the chapter never closes .
- 3. Haggis learned from his daughter lauren of the san diego chapter 's endorsement of it .
- 4. Chapter 7 who stole the tarts ?
- 5. Chapter 3 is even more tightly structured .