încapsulate

Încapsulate is a Romanian verb meaning to enclose something within a capsule or sealed container, and by extension to present something in a compact, self-contained form. The infinitive is a încapsula; the past participle masculine is încapsulat and feminine încapsulată; the noun form is încapsulare. In general usage, the term covers both literal enclosure (as in medicine or geology) and figurative enclosure (as in summarizing or packaging information).

Etymology and cognates: the word is formed from the root capsul- (from Latin capsula) with the Romanian prefix în-; it is cognate with the English encapsulate and the French encapsuler, reflecting a shared linguistic lineage for terms related to capsules and enclosure.

Usage and domains: in medicine and pharmacology, a substance may be encapsulated in a gelatin capsule to aid delivery and stability. In scientific and technical contexts, the term is used metaphorically to describe enclosing properties or functionality within a single unit, a concept central to encapsulation in programming and systems design. For example, one might say that a library encapsulates core functionality behind a stable interface, or that data and methods are encapsulated within a class.

See also: encapsulation; encapsulate; encapsulation in computing; a încapsulare (Romanian term for the process of encapsulation).