Kopf

English

Etymology

German surname, borrowed from German Kopf (see below). Compare Koepf.

Proper noun

Kopf (plural Kopfes)

1. A surname from German.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Kopf is the 12775^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 2415 individuals. Kopf is most common among White (94.58%) individuals.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Kopf”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 2, New York City: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 337.

German

Picture dictionary

Kopf

Schädel

Gehirn

Auge

Nase

Mund

Kinn

Kiefer

Ohr

Schläfe

Hals

Click on labels in the image

Körper

Körper

Alternative forms

• Kopp (colloquial; northern and central Germany)

Etymology

From Middle High German kopf (“drinking vessel”), from Old High German kopf, chopf, kupf (“mug, bowl, head”), from Proto-West Germanic *kopp, from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz (“round object, bowl, crown of the head”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to turn, bend, arch, curve”).

Cognate with German Low German Kopp (“head”), Dutch kop (“head”), Saterland Frisian Kop (“head”), English cop (“the crown (of the head); the head”).

Alternatively, from or influenced by Late Latin cuppa, probably a form of Latin cūpa (“tub”) from Proto-Indo-European *kewp- (“a hollow”), related to English cup, although the form and gender make this derivation less likely.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔpf/, [kɔp͡f], [kɔp͡ɸ]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

Kopf m (strong, genitive Kopfes or Kopfs, plural Köpfe)

1. (anatomy) head

   Er fiel die Treppe hinunter, als sie ihm ein Buch an den Kopf warf.

   He fell down the stairs when she threw a book at his head.

2. crown, top
3. heading, title
4. person; individual; fellow (referring to one's intellect or mentality)

   Er ist ein heller Kopf.

   He's a bright fellow.

   (literally, “He is a bright head.”)

5. (linguistics) head
7. (numismatics) heads (side of a coin)

Declension

Declension of Kopf [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Kopf	die	Köpfe
genitive	eines	des	Kopfes, Kopfs	der	Köpfe
dative	einem	dem	Kopf, Kopfe1	den	Köpfen
accusative	einen	den	Kopf	die	Köpfe

¹Now rare, see notes.

Synonyms

• (head): Haupt

Hyponyms

• Blumenkopf
• Blütenkopf
• Briefkopf
• Brückenkopf
• Doppelkopf
• Dummkopf
• Hinterkopf
• Hitzkopf
• Knallkopf
• Kohlkopf
• Notenkopf
• Pilzkopf
• Quatschkopf
• Säulenkopf
• Schwachkopf

 

Derived terms

• -köpfig
• Kopfhaut
• verkopft

Related terms

• Kopfhörer
• Kopfkino
• Stahlkopfforelle
• Kopf-an-Kopf-Rennen

Further reading

• “Kopf” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Kopf” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Kopf” in Duden online
• “Kopf” in OpenThesaurus.de
• Kopf on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de
• Friedrich Kluge (1883) “Kopf”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891