Capitulates

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To agree to terms and yield, often following a period of resistance, which involves submission to an opposing force after negotiations
2. To submit to an authority or force after a struggle, often involving a formal agreement that marks the end of resistance
3. Agrees to give up resistance and accept terms set by an opponent

Etymology: Before it meant giving up a fight, "capitulate" meant drawing up a document in headed sections. The root is Latin "caput," "head," and the Medieval Latin "capitulum" was a little heading or chapter title. A scribe who divided a text into numbered sections was, in effect, capitulating it, and the verb grew from that work of organizing a text under distinct headings. From there the sense moved from the page to the negotiating table. Medieval Latin users applied the verb to bargaining and parleying, presumably because the terms of a surrender were drawn up as a list of articles, each one a numbered heading. English took the word in the 1530s, and the sense of formally yielding under agreed conditions came with it. The adjective "capitulated" was common in Early Modern English, which shows how closely the two ideas were tied in the language of the period.

Synonyms: surrenders, submits, yields

Antonyms: resists, fights, opposes