caption

What it means

1. mediaThe 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.

   Some of the photographs are new and interesting, but many captions are amateurish, uninformative or simply careless.

   1964 September, “New Books: The History of Railways. By Erwin Berghaus. Barrie & Rockcliff. 35s.”, in Modern Railways, page 222

3. broadcastingA piece of text appearing on screen as a subtitle or other part of a film or broadcast, describing dialogue (and sometimes other sound) for viewers who cannot hear.

   (theater, performance production) By analogy, text in a similar system used in a performance venue for transcription of a live event.

In a sentence

Some of the photographs are new and interesting, but many captions are amateurish, uninformative or simply careless.

1964 September, “New Books: The History of Railways. By Erwin Berghaus. Barrie & Rockcliff. 35s.”, in Modern Railways, page 222

Where it comes from

1. Latincaptiō“deception, fraud”
2. Englishcaption

Borrowed from Latin captiō (“deception, fraud”), from the past participle of capiō (“to take, to seize”) (English capture). Compare Middle English capcioun (“seizure, capture”).