capitalist
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkæp.ɪ.tə.lɪst/
Forms: form: capitalists
Etymology: From French capitaliste; equivalent to capital + -ist. Derived from Proto-Indo-European *káput (“head”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-.
Senses: examples: text: Very little of capital acquired in commerce is directed towards agriculture, save where a wealthy capitalist purchases lands for his own use; but it is seldom, if ever, applied to the improvement of the country, in the hands of the original landholders.
ref: 1818, Edward Cooke, “Thought on the Expedency ^([sic]) of Repealing the Usury Laws”, in The Pamphleteer, volume 13, number 25:
text: Were a wealthy English capitalist to dispose of the property that belongs to him in Êngland, which has been realised by former industry, and take it to Van Diemen's Land, where he could have land for nothing, he would probably discover that he had made no very judicious change.
ref: 1824, John Rooke, An Inquiry into the Principles of National Wealth, page 90:
text: It has been said that I kept a small account with Hobson Brothers, to whose bank I went, and entered the parlour with that trepidation which most poor men feel on presenting themselves before City magnates and capitalists.
ref: 1854-1855, William Thackeray, “XLVIII. In which Benedick is a Married Man”, in The Newcomes:
text: The capitalist, often the mere inheritor of wealth, the lucky finder or purchaser of a mine, or a successful gambler in the cereals necessary to life, human and animal, can not boast of his superior power
ref: 1882, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineer's Monthly Journal, volume 16, page 337:
text: He paid out, and received on account of the Government, thousands of dollars daily; and the mere handling of such considerable sums made him feel as if he were a great capitalist.
ref: 2000, John W. De Forest, Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secessions to Loyalty:
glosses: The owner of a considerable amount of capital; a wealthy person.
examples: text: Near-synonyms: businessman, financier, industrialist
text: The labourers do only receive, and ever have only received, as much as will subsist them, the landlords receive the surplus produce of the more fertile soils, and all the rest of the whole produce of labour in this and in every country goes to the capitalist under the name of profit for the use of his capital.
ref: 1922 [1825], Thomas Hodgskin with G. D. H. Cole, Labour Defended against the Claims of Capital, published 1828, page 31:
text: As capitalist, he is only capital personified. His soul is the soul of capital. But capital has one single life impulse, the tendency to create value and surplus-value, to make its constant factor, the means of production, absorb the greatest possible amount of surplus labour.
ref: 1906 [1867], Karl Marx, chapter X, in Edward Aveling, Samuel Moore, transl., edited by Friedrich Engels, Capital, volume 1, page 257:
text: The separation was made complete between the means of production concentrated in the hands of the capitalists, on the one side, and the producers, possessing nothing but their labor-power, on the other.
ref: 1907 [1880], Friedrich Engels, chapter III, in Edward Aveling, transl., Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, page 55:
text: That is all that is asked; and no capitalist in New England can make one quarter on capital in ordinary investments, on what can be made upon Chicago real estate.
ref: 1871, John Stephen Wright, Wright's Proposition to a Chicago Railway Capitalist, page 40:
text: “I have tried, as I hinted, to enlist the co-operation of other capitalists, but experience has taught me that any appeal is futile that does not impinge directly upon cupidity.[…]”
ref: 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
text: Every rail company worth its salt wanted to connect with London. Interestingly, it was largely that way around - provincial entrepreneurs wanting to connect with the capital, rather than London capitalists seeking to spread outwards.
ref: 2021 January 13, Christian Wolmar, “Read all about London's Cathedrals of Steam”, in RAIL, issue 922, page 62:
glosses: Someone whose wealth (capital) is invested in business ventures in order to return a profit.
examples: text: In a world of cheap airfares, laptops, and the Internet, we proudly regard mobility as a sign of how advanced we are. Hey, we're nomadic hipster capitalists!
ref: 2007 December 20, Clive Thompson, “Clive Thompson on How the Next Victim of Climate Change Will Be Our Minds”, in Wired Magazine, number 16.01, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2013:
synonyms: economic liberal
free enterpriser
liberal
glosses: A person who is a supporter of capitalism.
Derived terms: anarchist capitalist
anarcho-capitalist
anarchocapitalist
anticapitalist
anti-capitalist
capitalist anarchism
capitalist anarchist
capitalist realism
capitalist roader
capitalist roadism
capitalist roadist
countercapitalist
crapitalist
crony capitalist
cybercapitalist
eco-capitalist
ecocapitalist
homocapitalist
hypercapitalist
late capitalist
neo-capitalist
neocapitalist
non-capitalist
noncapitalist
palaeocapitalist
palaeo-capitalist
paleo-capitalist
paleocapitalist
post-capitalist
postcapitalist
pre-capitalist
precapitalist
procapitalist
protocapitalist
semicapitalist
state capitalist
supercapitalist
technocapitalist
turbocapitalist
venture capitalist
vulture capitalist
Related terms: capital
capitalism
capitalize
chapiter
chapter
chattel
state capitalism