caballero m. (Noun, Adjective) "gentleman," "cowboy," "knight;" "gentlemanly"

11th cent. From Late Latin caballarius "horseman," from Latin caballus "horse" (whence caballo) and -arius, an agent-forming suffix (see -ero).

caballo (Noun) "horse"

10th cent. From Latin caballus 'id.' Of non-Indo-European origin. Borrowed from an unknown language in Asia with the root *kab- (compare Turkish käväl "horse;" Russian kobýla "mare;" Old Church Slavonic koņь "horse"). Further consider Semitic words for camel with a structure *gam- (Hebrew gāmāl), hypothesized to be borrowed from an unattested Sumerian word.

cabello m. (Noun) "hair"

11th cent. From Latin capilla 'id.' Of unknown origin. Possibly from a non-Indo-European language with a root *kap- (see cabo).

caber (Verb) "to fit"

12th cent. From Latin capere "to take in," "to capture." From Proto-Italic *kap-i- 'id.' Of unknown origin.

cabeza f. (Noun) "head"

10th cent. From Vulgar Latin *capitia 'id.,' from caput "head" (see cabo) and -itia, an abstract noun-forming suffix (see -eza).

Western Vulgar Latin reanalyzed the neuter plural as a feminine singular noun (see arma and hoja).

cabezo m. (Noun) "mountain peak"

14th cent. From Latin capitium 'id.' From caput "head" (see cabo).

cabo m. (Noun) "cape"

10th cent. Vulgar Latin caput, recorded in the Appendix Probi of the 3rd or 4th cent. In Vulgar Latin caput may have meant the end as well as the beginning, as seen in Italian far capo "to commence." From Latin caput "head." From Proto-Italic *kaput 'id.' From an unknown pre-Indo-European substrate language *kap- "cup."

According to Beekes (1996), there are five reasons why the word is borrowed from another language. First, cognates in other languages point to *a in Proto-Indo-European - a vowel which did not exist. Second, if one reconstructs *kh₂p- we must account for a missing full-grade **keh₂p-. Third, an incongruous a/au variation (Old English hafut versus Gothic haubiþ) cannot be satisfactorily explained by contamination and there is no reason to assume an ablaut that ended in a stop. Fourth, the suffix -ut in Latin caput is utterly alien to Italic tongues except as the perfect participle, which makes little sense. Admittedly it could be a borrowing from Celtic, but that does nothing to explain the suffix *-it in Germanic, as evidenced in Gothic haubiþ. The most parsimonious explanation is that suffixes *-ut and *-it are remnants from a non-Indo-European language. Fifth and finally, k-initial plain velars words are rare in Proto-Indo-European. Their presence should raise suspicion. On the other hand, Kroonen (2014) believes the words are of native Indo-European stock, as he assumed variation in *a/au was due to supplanting the old proterodynamic paradigm with -au- (borrowed from the oblique).

"Given this situation [above] - which has always been clear - it seems certain the word is a loan. I find it surprising that I nowhere have seen even the suggestion that the word could be non-IE." ~ R. Beekes, "Ancient European Loanwords" (1996)

cabrón m. (Noun) (vulgar) "motherfucker;" "he-goat"

13th cent. From capra and augmentive suffix -ón.

cacho (1) m. (Noun) "piece," "slice," "chunk"

Very late 15th cent. Originally meaning a pottery sherd. From Vulgar Latin *cacculus "pot," from Late Latin caccubus 'id.' Borrowed from Ancient Greek κάκκαβος 'id.' Of unknown origin, however compare Akkadian kukkubbu, kukkupu "rhyton," "pig's stomach" - if such a similarity is due to anything more than coincidence, we may posit an origin in a Semitic source.

cacho (2) m. (Noun) "surmullet"

From Vulgar Latin *cattulus "puppy," from Latin catulus "animal young." From Proto-Italic *kat-elo- 'id.' Of uncertain origin, unlikely to be from Proto-Indo-European.