Etymology Dictionary

CAPSTAN,  a machine for winding up a cable.  (F.,—Span.)   'The weighing of anchors by the capstan is also new;' Ralegh, Essays (in Todd's Johnson).—F. cabestan, 'the capstane of a ship;' Cot.—Span. cabrestante, a capstan, engine to raise weights; also spelt cabestrante.—Span. cabestrar, to tie with a halter.—Lat. capistrare, to fasten with a halter, muzzle, tie; pres. part. capistrans (stem capistrant-), whence the Span. cabestrante.   Cf. also Span. cabestrage, cattle-drivers' money, also a halter, answering to Low Lat. capistragium, money for halters.—Lat. capistrum (Span. cabestro), a halter.—Lat. capere, to hold.   See Capacious.   ¶ Sometimes derived from cabra, a goat, engine to cast stones, and estante, explained by 'standing,' i.e. upright; but Span. estante means 'extant, being in a place, permanent;' and the Span. pres. part. estando simply means 'being.' [†]

ADDENDA

M.E. capstan, in Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, B. 418.   'Post in a shyppe called cabastayne, cabestain;' Palsgrave.   Minsheu's Span. Dict. ed. 1627 gives only the form 'Cabrestante, a capston (sic) in a ship.'   And he even gives 'estante, standing.'   This being so, Wedgwood's etymology greatly gains in probability.   He explains it as 'a standing crab [meaning windlass], a windlass set upright for the purpose of enabling a large number of men to work at it,' in opposition to the ordinary modification of the machine, where it is more convenient to make the axis horizontal.   A crab is a kind of crane (see Webster), here used to translate Span. cabre (Wedgwood).   I do not find cabre, but cabria means an axle-tree or crane, and cabra is a goat, or a machine for throwing stones.   The F. chèvre means both a goat and a crab or crane; and it is well ascertained that cabria, cabra (like F. chèvre) are derived from Lat. capra, a she-goat; see note on Pulley, sect. γ, p. 476.   β. The etymology from capistrum is given by Mahn, but I think it must be abandoned in favour of that from capra, she-goat, and stantem, acc. of pres. pt. of stare, to stand.   Let Monlau, the author of the Spanish Etymological Dictionary (2nd ed. Madrid, 1881), be heard on this point.   He says of cabrestante, that its origin is from Lat. capra stans, standing goat; cabra has originated the name, not of this machine only, but of those called cabreia, cabria, cabrio, &c.   So also Scheler and Littré.