Caput, is a Latin word meaning literally 'head' or 'top'. It
has been borrowed in a variety of English words, including
capital, captain, and decapitate. The Italian surname Caputo
comes from the appellation used by some Roman military generals.
A variant form has surfaced more recently in the title Capo, as
in head of La Cosa Nostra. The French language converted 'caput'
into chief, chef, and chapitre, later borrowed in English as
chapter.
Caput was also the name of the council or ruling body of the
University of Cambridge prior to the constitution of 1856 and
remains the presiding body of the Senate of the University of
Dublin. Caput is also used in medicine to describe any head like
protuberance on an organ or structure, such as the caput humeri.
The German word kaputt means destroyed, broken, ruined, or
dysfunctional. From German kaputt "destroyed, ruined, lost"
(1640s). Maybe is a misunderstanding of an expression from
card-playing, capot machen, a partial translation into German of
French faire capot, a phrase which meant "to win all the tricks
(from the other player) in piquet," an obsolete card game.
The words may be
similar, but are not related.