Other forms: capes
A cape is a sleeveless cloak hanging from the shoulders. A red cape, a woollen cape, wearing a cape.
It differs from a cloak in being shorter, and it is the standard superhero garment, which is most of what the word does now. The other cape is a headland — a piece of land jutting into the sea: Cape Horn, Cape Cod, the Cape of Good Hope. The two are unrelated in sense and identical in spelling. Note caped, and that the Cape on its own usually means the Cape of Good Hope.
1nounsleevelessA sleeveless cloak hanging from the shoulders.
“The superhero wore a red cape that flew out behind him.”
2nouncapeA headland jutting into the sea.
“The cape takes the full weight of the weather.”
cape is a garment, or a headland.
Both words come from Latin caput, a head. The garment covered the head and shoulders; the headland is a head of land. English inherited one word doing both jobs, and the connection is the same Latin noun.
Proto-Indo-European
*kap-
Latin
caput — head
Old French
cap — cape, headland
Middle English
cape
English, today
cape
From Middle English cape, gappe, cap, from Old French cap (“cape, headland”), from Latin caput (“head”). Compare Old Norse kobbi (“islet, small cape”). a doublet of capo and caput and chef and chief, and distantly with a doublet of head and Howth. For sense development, compare ness from a root related to nose, нос (the same PIE root). Also compare coast (<< costa).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA