capital
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkæpɪtəl/
ipa: [ˈkʰæp.ɪ.ɾɫ̩]
homophone: capitol
rhymes: -æpɪtəl
Forms: form: capitall
Etymology: From Middle English capital, borrowed partly from Old French capital and partly from Latin capitālis (“of the head”) (in sense “head of cattle”), from caput (“head”) (English cap) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives). Use in trade and finance originated in Medieval economies when a common but expensive transaction involved trading heads of cattle. The noun is from the adjective.
Compare chattel and kith and kine (“all one’s possessions”), which also use “cow” to mean “property”.
Doublet of cattle and chattel.
Senses: examples: text: a capital article in religion
ref: 1708, Francis Atterbury, Fourteen Sermons Preach'd on Several Occasions, Preface:
text: whatever is capital and essential in Christianity
ref: 1852, Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening:
glosses: Of prime importance.
examples: text: London and Paris are capital cities.
glosses: Chief (in a political sense, as being the seat of the general government of a state or nation).
examples: text: That is a capital idea!
text: “He is a capital fellow,” the Englishman in London had said, “and he has got an awfully pretty wife. […]”
ref: 1878, Henry James, An International Episode:
text: Sometimes he laughed heartily as if he heard some capital joke; by degrees this lessened, and he spoke rapidly, but in very low tones.
ref: 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 166:
glosses: Excellent.
examples: text: capital punishment; capital murder
text: Neither could the Legiſlature in any thing more conſult the Publick Good, than by providing ſome effectual Remedy againſt this Evil, which in ſeveral Caſes deſerves greater Puniſhment than many Crimes that are capital among us.
ref: 1709, [Jonathan Swift], A Project for the Advancement of Religion, and the Reformation of Manners. […], London: […] Benj[amin] Tooke, […], →OCLC, pages 53–54:
text: to put to death a capital offender
ref: 1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC:
text: Some 1,600 priests were deported, for example, while the total number of capital victims of the military commissions down to 1799 was only around 150.
ref: 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 517:
qualifier: crime
glosses: Punishable by, or involving punishment by, death.
examples: text: One begins a sentence with a capital letter.
synonyms: majuscular
uppercase
antonyms: lower-case
glosses: Uppercase.
examples: text: You're a genius with a capital G!
text: He's dead with a capital D!
text: In recent years, much has been made of the lack of new heavyweight male star power in mainstream Hollywood. Talented performers may be everywhere, but Movie Stars, capital M, capital S, are something else.
ref: 2021 February 9, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC:
synonyms: majuscular
uppercase
antonyms: lower-case
glosses: Uppercase.
used to emphasise greatness or absoluteness
examples: text: Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise / Expect with mortal pain.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: Of or relating to the head.