captée

Captée is the feminine singular past participle of the French verb capter, meaning to take in, capture, or receive. As an adjective or in compound verb forms, captée describes something that has been recorded, intercepted, or obtained by a device, process, or observer. It is commonly found in technical, scientific, and journalistic contexts to indicate that data, signals, images, or phenomena have been captured.

Etymology and grammar notes: captée derives from capter, which itself comes from Latin capere. In practice, captée is used to agree with a feminine noun (for example, une image captée, l’énergie captée). With the auxiliary avoir, the participle generally agrees only when a preceding direct object exists (par exemple, les données que nous avons captées). In passive constructions, the form captée may appear with être (la lumière est captée).

Common usages: in photography and videography, une image captée designates an image captured by a camera; in broadcasting and telecommunications, the phrase peut refer to a signal capté or donnée captée by a receiver. In scientific and industrial contexts, energy captée, information captée, or stimuli captés describe quantities obtained or recorded by instruments. The term is also used more loosely to indicate that attention or interest has been captured, though in such cases it may be accompanied by figurative language rather than a literal recording.

Related forms and synonyms: capté (masculine singular), captés (masculine plural), captées (feminine plural); related nouns include capture, captation, and capteur (sensor). The word shares roots with other French derivatives built on capter, reflecting the act of taking in, collecting, or recording.