captata

Captata is a Latin feminine form of the perfect passive participle derived from the verb captare (and related forms such as capere). In Latin grammar, captata functions as an adjective or a participle that agrees with a feminine noun in gender, number, and case, meaning “taken,” “captured,” or “seized.” The masculine analogue is captatus and the neuter is captatum.

Etymology and form: The root is from capere “to take” or captare “to seize,” with the standard participial suffix -atus in the perfect passive participle. As a result, captata appears only where a feminine noun is modified, for example as captata res (“the captured thing”) or femina captata (“the captured woman”). Like other participles, captata can function adjectivally or as a non-finite verbal form within a noun phrase, and it declines to reflect case, number, and gender.

Grammatical usage: Captata agrees with feminine nouns and follows typical participial concord rules. It can appear in various cases, not only nominative, depending on its syntactic role. In classical and medieval Latin, such forms are common in legal, military, and narrative contexts to describe items, persons, or states that have been seized or taken.

Modern relevance: Today, captata is primarily encountered in linguistic discussions of Latin grammar and in editions of Latin texts where precise participial forms are analyzed. It is not a standalone concept outside Latin philology, but remains a standard example of feminine perfect passive participles.

See also: captatus, captatum, capere, captare, Latin participles.