A short piece of text that explains a picture, diagram, or video, or adds extra information.
It comes from Latin 'captio', meaning 'a taking or seizing', through legal English where it referred to the beginning or heading of a legal document. Over time, the idea shifted from 'heading that seizes attention' to the text under images.
A caption used to be about 'seizing' something, and now it seizes your eyes and brain under a photo. The word reminds you that even a tiny line of text can grab control of how you understand an image.
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