caput

The head.

A knob-like protuberance or capitulum.

The top or superior part of a thing.

The council or ruling body of the University of Cambridge prior to the constitution of 1856.

D. has been engaged, he tells me, through a course of laborious years, in an investigation into all curious matter connected with the two Universities; and has lately lit upon a MS. collection of charters, relative to C⁠⸺, by which he hopes to settle some disputed points—particularly that long controversy between them as to priority of foundation. The ardor with which he engages in these liberal pursuits, I am afraid, has not met with all the encouragement it deserved, either here, or at C⁠⸺. Your caputs, and heads of colleges, care less than any body else about these questions.

Ellipsis of caput succedaneum.