Register and tone

Twentieth on the list is venire a capo, and the two languages picture the same act of understanding at opposite ends of the same object. Il capo is the head, from Latin caput, and in Italian it is also the end or tip of a thing — the end of a rope, the head of a queue. To come to the head of something is to reach the point where it can finally be taken hold of, so non riesco a venire a capo di questo modulo says that the form has beaten the reader. English goes for the other end and says « to get to the bottom of it », as though the answer had sunk and had to be dredged up. The Italian noun keeps its double duty everywhere else in the language: andare a capo is to start a new line on the page, da capo is from the top again, in capo a un mese is at the end of a month. The head is a beginning or an ending, never a depth, which is why the English picture has to be put down before the Italian one can be picked up.