cabeços

Cabeços is the plural of cabeço, a Portuguese noun that designates a small hill, knoll or elevated area rising modestly from the surrounding land. Cabeços are typically lower than mountains (montes) or hills (serras) and may be wooded or bare. In rural landscapes they often function as landmarks that help define local boundaries or routes. In toponymy, cabeços appear in many place names, indicating the presence of such elevations near a settlement or along a route.

Etymology and meaning: Cabeço derives from Latin caput, “head,” via old Portuguese, reflecting the sense of a top, summit or prominent point on the landscape. The plural cabeços is used for multiple such features.

Geographic distribution and usage: The term is widely used in Portugal and in other Portuguese-speaking regions, including Brazil, in the names of towns, parishes and geographic features. When used in maps and geographic descriptions, cabeços denote minor elevations that can influence local climate, hydrology, and land use. The concept is common in rural cartography and descriptive geography and remains a standard term for describing gentle uplands in Portuguese-language geography.