Talk:kaput

Etymology

The correct spelling for kaput, in the Yiddish alphabet, is needed in the Etymology section. Bennmorland 02:33, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

The word seems in fact to come from the French 'capot'.

More likely, they all come originally from Latin caput. --EncycloPetey 06:57, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

I've changed it to reflect the etymology from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/kaput and https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kaput and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piquet#Capot. I found no reference to it coming from Yiddish---unless someone can show that the English word came via French > German > Yiddish > English, I believe it should be assumed the German word was loaned by both the Yiddish and English languages. Richard n (talk) 07:35, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

Yiddish in Etymology

Almost 9 years later, the etymology still lists Yiddish as the derivation. Every source I checked claims French 'capot' is the derivation, as commenter at IP address 82.127.20.40 wrote above.

Barring your objections and my laziness, I will change the etymology to reflect 'capot' as the derivation.

Charletan (talk) 19:24, 8 January 2015 (UTC)

The current etymology says nothing about Yiddish being the derivation, it says it came from German via Yiddish- which is probably true. Of course, German got it from French, so you should add that part- but there's no need to remove anything. Chuck Entz (talk) 08:39, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

> it came from German via Yiddish- which is probably true

Is it? Do you have a source for that probability?

> Of course, German got it from French

How can German get it from French yet via Yiddish?

Charletan (talk) 23:56, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

English got it from Yiddish, which got it from German, which got it from French. Clear now?

If you don't know what via means, just look it up. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 07:11, 5 October 2016 (UTC)

English 1895 (< Yiddish??) < German kaputt machen (sense reversal) < French faire capot. I put Yiddish in parentheses because I question whether it is factual. It's possible, but I'm not sure of it. —Stephen ^(Talk) 09:26, 5 October 2016 (UTC)

Fair (compare Etymonline), but it's quite plausible that it was at least influenced or reinforced by Yiddish, in view of the spelling and the (I think) greater popularity in US English (mutual reinforcement of Yiddishisms and Germanisms does not seem to be unheard of). I suspect that the via is used because of this uncertainty. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 00:16, 6 October 2016 (UTC)