Also caponiere, caponnière, kaponier. [a. F. caponnière, ad. Sp. caponera in same sense; orig. a capon-cote or mews, f. capon CAPON. Many modern writers have used the French form.]
‘A covered passage across the ditch of a fortified place, for the purpose either of sheltering communication with outworks or of affording a flanking fire to the ditch in which it stands’ (Stocqueler, Mil. Dict., 1853).
1683. Lond. Gaz., No. 1858/6. A Retrenchment … which we still maintain, to cover the Caponiers we have in the Ditch.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., Caponniere.
1772. Simes, Mil. Guide, Caponier.
1830. E. Campbell, Dict. Mil. Sc., Caponière.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea (1877), III. v. 364. Of its eight angles, every other one was supplied with a little bastion or caponiere.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 138/2. Kaponiers are large casemated masonry buildings for the defence of the ditches of permanent works on the polygonal system.
1882. St. James’s Gaz., 6 Feb. Strong caponiers for flanking the ditches.
