Word of the Day

: November 9, 2012

kaput

adjective kuh-PUT

What It Means

1 : utterly finished, defeated, or destroyed

2 : unable to function : useless

3 : hopelessly outmoded

kaput in Context

Shortly after Richard retired as CEO, the firm went kaput.

"We humans casually disrobed on social networks and pranced about, then one day caught sight of ourselves in the mirror and are now, egad, desperately rifling through mountains of cast-off clothing for our own. Too late. Privacy is kaput...." - From an article by Betsy Shea-Taylor in The Sun Chronicle (Attleboro, Massachusetts), June 8, 2012

Did You Know?

"Kaput" originated with a card game called piquet that has been popular in France for centuries. French players originally used the term "capot" to describe both big winners and big losers. To win all twelve tricks in a hand was called "faire capot" ("to make capot"), but to lose them all was known as "être capot" ("to be capot"). German speakers adopted "capot," but respelled it "kaputt," and used it only for losers. When English speakers borrowed the word from German, they started using "kaput" for things that were broken, useless, or destroyed.