Kapo.
corporal, non-commissioned officer
Meaning & usage
corporal, non-commissioned officer
foreman
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)
Where this word comes from
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”).
Cantonal police
Where this word comes from
Clipping of Kantonspolizei.
leader, military commander
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Italian capo. Doublet of Korporal and Kapo (“corporal; prisoner-overseer”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.