# Baş / kafa



## FlyingBird

What is difference between 'baş' and 'kafa'?

Başım ağrıyor=my head is aching
Kafam ağrıyor=my head is aching

so i don't see any difference between those two sentences.


teşekkürler


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## murattug

is there any other word in english that describes "part of the body above neck"?
there is another word in turkish: kelle
an example: a turkish person giving order to waiter "bize çay getir/bring us tea" and waiter ask "kaç tane?/how many?" and a reply came "kelle say/count heads"


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## murattug

I thought again
kafam karıştı = I am confused 
"başım karıştı" is not same meaning
başım belada = I am in trouble
"kafam belada" is not any meaning

there is no rule when use "baş" when use "kafa"

as you can see my english is not good 
especially to make english sentences

I apologize for that.


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## Arabus

The original difference may be simply that _baş _is Turkic, and _kafa _is Arabic.

In Arabic, _kafa _does not mean "head" but means the back of the neck. It is not unusual for Arabic words to have slightly different meanings in Turkish. It is possible that there was (or still is) an Arabic dialect that called the head _kafa_, and the Turks (or Iranians) may have took the word from that dialect.


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## ancalimon

The Turkish kafa might not be related with the Arabic meaning at all.

It might be related with "thinking", "catching and containing ideas that are swimming in the sky" aspect of our head - brain.

I mean it might be related with Turkic words "kof" & "kap" & "kapmak".

Of course we don't have an etymology for this head meaning but we use kafa when talking about the intelligence aspect of the head and we never use baş for that.


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## Arabus

Yes it is true that the Arabic connection seems a bit weak, but this is still the strongest available connection. The Turkish etymology that you suggest sounds a bit fanciful to me.

In my opinion, an Indo-European etymology is also worth considering. Compare with Greek _kephalē _and Latin _caput_. However, this dictionary prefers the Arabic etymology.


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## Rosto

Greek _kephalē _and Latin _caput _even are not cognates between themselves. 
_κεφάλι_ is from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰebʰ-l-.
_caput_ is from Proto-Indo-European *kauput-, *káput


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