caput

plural caputs · plural capita

1. archaicanatomyThe head.
2. archaicanatomyA knob-like protuberance or capitulum.
3. The top or superior part of a thing.
4. The head, the leader or chief of a geoup of people.
5. obsoleteThe capital city, the headquarters.
6. UKhistoricalThe Caput Senatus, council or ruling body of the University of Cambridge prior to its constitution of 1856

   1 more example

   D. has been engaged, he tells me, through a course of laborious years, in an investigation into all curious matter connected with the two Universities; and has lately lit upon a MS. collection of charters, relative to C⁠⸺, by which he hopes to settle some disputed points—particularly that long controversy between them as to priority of foundation. The ardor with which he engages in these liberal pursuits, I am afraid, has not met with all the encouragement it deserved, either here, or at C⁠⸺. Your caputs, and heads of colleges, care less than any body else about these questions.

   1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “Oxford in the Vacation”, in Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 22

7. abbreviationcolloquialellipsismedicineEllipsis of caput succedaneum.