Root of the Week: CAP (Monday)

MONDAY  Capsule (noun)

From the Latin root “CAP,” we get capsule, meaning a small container. A pharmaceutical capsule is usually made of gelatin and contains a medication.   A space capsule is a kind of spacecraft designed to carry astronauts and equipment into space.  Sometimes fashion designers will release a capsule collection, that is, a small curated selection of their designs.

If we add the Latin root “en,” meaning “in” or “into,” to “capsule,” we get encapsulate, meaning to enclose or contain.  This applies to physical things (medicine can be encapsulated to create a pill) but it can also apply to words and ideas.  To encapsulate can mean to express something succinctly, as when a complex idea or argument is expressed in a few words.