capo1
/ˈkapəʊ
/(also capo tasto)
noun (plural capos)
A clamp fastened across all the strings of a fretted musical instrument to raise their tuning by a chosen amount.Tuners, capos, pics, guitar straps and a set of extra strings are all handy toys....
- It can be silly things, like we'll use a capo and drop D, tune the string down to make a chord, rather than just play the chord normally.
- With Tielli if he screws up, he stops, laughs and starts again - as he did when he forgot his capo and had to borrow one from Wayne Omaha guitarist-vocalist Matt James.
Origin
Late 19th century: from Italian capo tasto, literally 'head stop'.
capo2
/ˈkapəʊ/noun (plural capos) chiefly North American
The head of a crime syndicate, especially the Mafia, or a branch of one: the Sicilian capo claims he controls most of the world’s heroin trade...
- In Queens, New York, two weeks of digging an alleged mafia bone yard has led to two capos of the Bonanno crime family.
- Or because we tend to think of the politicians and the presidency as occupying a parallel world - Mafia dons and capos dispatching one another in a turf war.
- It was the prosecution of a Gambino crime family capo and his crew for narcotics trafficking, murder, racketeering, jury tampering and other charges.
Origin
1950s: Italian, from Latin caput 'head'.