Obs. exc. dial. Forms: α. 4–5 capel, 4–6 capil, 5 capylle, 5–6 capill, 6 capyl, 4–7 caple. β. 4–9 capul, 5 capulle, 5–6 capull. In Drayton cauple. [ME. capel, -il, -yl, -ul, corresponds to Icel. kapall (for kapal-r) nag, hack, mare; also to Ir. capall, capull horse, mare, Gael. capall mare, the relations between which are uncertain; the ultimate source is prob. L. caball-us horse, hack. See also CABALL, and its variants.
Not in Old Irish (Windisch): Manx has cabbyl, Welsh ceffyl (Davies, not in Pughe), Cornish cevil, kevil, keffyl (also in place names as Nankevil, Penkevil), Breton caval (in Lagadeuc’s Catholicon 1499, and in Rostrenen 1732, not in Legonidec). These forms point to no common Celtic source, but to separate adoption from L., Norman Fr., and perh. Eng. The Irish capall was evidently directly from L. caballus. The Icelandic word is chiefly in ecclesiastical documents after 13th c., and may be directly from L., or perh. immed. through Irish. The immediate source of the ME. word is not determined.]
A horse: in ME. chiefly poetical; now only dial.
c. 1290. Land Cokaygne, 32, in E. E. P. (1862), 157. Hors, no capil, kowe, no ox.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1254. Þay wer cagged and kaȝt on capeles al bare.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. IV. 22. Þenne Concience on his Capul Carieth forþ Faste.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Frere’s T., 254. Bothe hey and Cart and eek hise caples thre.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 61/2. Capul, or caple, horse, caballus.
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 114. The ane of ȝow my Capill ta, The vther his [the king’s] Coursour alswa.
1547. Salesbury, Welsh Dict., Kephyll, a capull.
1600. Holland, Livy, III. vii. 1365, note. Grasse and food, for sheepe, caples, and goats.
1603. Drayton, Bar. Warres, VI. l. Phœbus tooke his lab’ring Teame … To wash his Cauples in the Ocean Streame.
1670. Ray, Proverbs, 48. It is time to yoke when the cart comes to the caples, Cheshire.
1799. R. Jamieson, Pop. Ballads (1806), I. 233 (Jam.). And hark! what capul nicker’d proud?
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, xxxviii. I will get me … my neighbour Buthan’s good capul.
2. A name for a hen. rare.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 99. Sely Capyll, oure hen, both to and fro She kakyls.
