Caput

A head; the head of a person; the whole person; the life of a person; one's personality; status; civll condition.

At common law. A head. Caput comitatis, the head of the county; the sheriff; the king. Spelman. A person; a life. The upper part of a town. Cowell. A castle. Spelman.

In the civil law. It signified a person's civil condition or status, and among the Romans consisted of three component parts or elements,—libertas, liberty; civitas, citizenship; and familia, family.

— Capitis æstimatio. In Saxon law. The estimation or value of the head, that is, the price or value of a man's life.

— Capnt anni. The first day of the year.

— Capnt baronise. The castle or chief seat of a baron.

— Capnt jejnnii. The beginning of the Lent fast, i.e., Ash Wednesday.

— Capnt loci. The head or upper part of a place.

— Capnt lnpinnm. In old English law. A wolf's head. An outlawed felon was said to be caput lupinum, and might be knocked on the head, like a wolf.

— Caput mortuum. A dead head; dead; obsolete.

— Caput portus. In old English law. The head of a port. The town to which a port belongs, and which gives the denomination to the port, and is the head of it. Hale de Jure Mar. pt. 2, (de portubus maris,) c. 2.

— Cauut, principium, et finis. The head, beginning, and end. A term applied in English law to the king, as head of parliament. 4 Inst 3 ; 1 Bl. Comm. 188.