Etymology

kapoof

K5A1P3O1O1F4

Today it means: The sound of something disappearing, or going up in smoke. Full definition →

English poof ← German kaputt ← French capot
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*kap-?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*kap-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*káput
  4. Proto-Italic*kaput
  5. Latincaput
  6. Latincapitulum
  7. Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
  8. Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
  9. Latincapitulāre?
  10. Late Latincappa
  11. Old Frenchcape
  12. Old Frenchcapote
  13. Frenchcapot
  14. Germankaputt
  15. Englishkaput
  16. Englishpoof
  17. English todaykapoof

Blend of kaput + poof. Perhaps influenced by the ka- prefix (which is a variant of ker-).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.