Caput is an extinct town in Barton County, in the U.S. state of Missouri. The town site is approximately five miles northwest of Lamar. [1]
Barton County is a county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2010 census, the population was 12,402. Its county seat is Lamar. The county was organized in 1855 and named after U.S. Senator David Barton from Missouri.
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are currently 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory and shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders. Four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names.
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern United States. With over six million residents, it is the 18th-most populous state of the Union. The largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia; the capital is Jefferson City. The state is the 21st-most extensive in area. In the South are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation. The Missouri River, after which the state is named, flows through the center of the state into the Mississippi River, which makes up Missouri's eastern border.
A post office called Caput was established in 1871, and remained in operation until 1895. [2] Besides the post office, the community had a schoolhouse. [3] The name Caput most likely is derived from Latin. [4]
Caput, a Latin word meaning literally "head" and by metonymy "top", has been borrowed in a variety of English words, including capital, captain, and decapitate. The surname Caputo, common in the Campania region of Italy, comes from the appellation used by some Roman military generals. A variant form has surfaced more recently in the title Capo, the head of La Cosa Nostra. The French language converted 'caput' into chief, chef, and chapitre, later borrowed in English as chapter.
