different between captious vs caption

English

Etymology

From Middle English capcious, from Middle French captieux, or its source, Latin capti?sus, from capti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kæp??s/

Adjective

captious (comparative more captious, superlative most captious)

1. (obsolete) That captures; especially, (of an argument, words etc.) designed to capture or entrap in misleading arguments; sophistical.

   Synonyms: tricky, thorny, sophistical

2. Having a disposition to find fault unreasonably or to raise petty objections; cavilling, nitpicky.
   • 1968, Sidney Monas, translating Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment (1866):

     But Peter Petrovich did not accept this retort. On the contrary, he became all the more captious and irritable, as though he were just hitting his stride.

   • 2009, Anne Karpf, The Guardian, 24 Jan 2009:

     The "Our Bold" column, nitpicking at errors in other periodicals, can look merely captious, and its critics often seem to be wildly and collectively wrong-headed.

   Synonyms: carping, critical, faultfinding, hypercritical, nitpicky

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• autopsic

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin capti?, from the past participle of capi? (“I take, I seize”) (English capture). Compare Middle English capcioun (“seizure, capture”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kæp.??n/

Noun

caption (plural captions)

1. (typography) The descriptive heading or title of a document or part thereof
2. A title or brief explanation attached to an illustration, cartoon, user interface element, etc.
3. (cinematography) A piece of text appearing on screen as subtitle or other part of a film or broadcast.
4. (law) The section on an official paper that describes when, where, what was taken, found or executed, and by whom it was authorized.
5. (obsolete, law) A seizure or capture, especially of tangible property (chattel).
   • 1919 Thomas Welburn Hughes. A treatise on criminal law and procedure. The Bobbs-Merril Co., Indianapolis, IN, USA. Sec. 557 (p. 378).

     The caption and asportation must be felonious.

Usage notes

In film and video, captions may transcribe or describe all significant dialogue and sound for viewers who cannot hear it, while subtitles translate foreign-language dialogue.

Derived terms

• captionable, captioned, captioner, captioning
• (film) closed caption, closed-caption, closed captions, closed captioned, closed-captioned, close captioned, close-captioned, closed captioning, closed-captioning
• (film) open caption, open-caption, open captions
• (film) real time caption, real-time caption, real time captioning, real-time captioning

Related terms

• captious
• captivate
• captive
• capture

Translations

Verb

caption (third-person singular simple present captions, present participle captioning, simple past and past participle captioned)

1. To add captions to a text or illustration.

   Only once the drawing is done will the letterer caption it.

2. To add captions to a film or broadcast.

Translations

Anagrams

• Pontiac, anticop, paction