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Saturday September 19, 2009

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capacious [kuh-PAY-shuhs]

adjective

1. Able to contain a large capacity; roomy; spacious.

• But Mr. Hagans played it with admirably solemn concentration before yielding the floor to Mr. Abercrombie, whose solo was a model of coherent flow, and Mr. Copland, who made a concise statement feel capacious and open-ended.
  Nate Chinen, "An Assertive Trumpeter Is Muted, but Not Shy", New York Times, Jul 10, 2009
• Peering around Marea's capacious dining room is like trying to identify all the caricatures on the wall at the Minetta Tavern. Everyone is someone, but I can't name more than a few- especially while distracted by a crostini topped with a buttery lump of sea urchin, cloaked in the thinnest membrane of half-meked lardo.
  Sarah Digregorio, "High-End Highs", The Village Voice, Jul 1-Jul 7, 2009
• He rubbed his hands; adjusted his capacious waistcoat; laughed all over himself, from his shoes to his organ of benevolence; and called out, in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice-- 'Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!'
  Charles Dickens (1812-1870) English novelist and social campaigner. A Christmas Carol (1915)

Origin of the Word

Capacious , approximately 1614, derives from Latin capax," able to take in", from capere, "able to hold, to contain."