capable [M16th] The first recorded sense of this was ‘able to take in’, physically or mentally. It comes from Latin capere ‘take or hold’ which is found in many other English words including: accept [LME] from ad- ‘to’ and capere; anticipation [LME] ‘acting or taking in advance’; capacity [LME] ‘ability to hold’; caption [LME] originally an act of capture; captive [LME]; catch [ME]; chase [ME]; conceive [ME] literally ‘take together’; except [LME] ‘take out of’; incapacity [E17th] inability to hold; intercept [LME] to take between; perceive [ME] to hold entirely; *prince; receive [ME] ‘take back’; recipe [ME] ‘take’, susceptible [E17th] literally ‘that can be taken from below’.