capital
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkæpɪtəl/
ipa: [ˈkʰæp.ɪ.ɾɫ̩]
homophone: capitol
rhymes: -æpɪtəl
Forms: form: capitals
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: topics: economics
sciences
glosses: Already-produced durable goods available for use as a factor of production, such as steam shovels (equipment) and office buildings (structures).
examples: text: He does not have enough capital to start a business.
topics: business
finance
insurance
glosses: Money and wealth. The means to acquire goods and services, especially in a non-barter system.
examples: text: The markets crashing symbolized capital’s discontent with the tax reforms passed.
topics: government
politics
glosses: The capitalist class; investors considered collectively with respect to their societal (economic, political, cultural, etc.) influence.
examples: text: Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States of America.
text: The Welsh government claims that Cardiff is Europe’s youngest capital.
text: Lin Hsiang-ju immediately said to the king of Ch’in, “If Ta-wang wants fifteen cities from Chao, the king of Chao should also get something in return. What about giving him Hsien-yang as a gift?’ Hsien-yang was the capital of Ch’in.
ref: 1995, Linda Fang, The Chʻi-lin Purse: A Collection of Ancient Chinese Stories, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 54:
text: Ladies of yesteryear toured world capitals in sedate linen dresses, but such priggish frumpery hardly presents Americans as the carefree, egalitarian, and sensuous people the viewers of dubbed Baywatch episodes have come to expect.
ref: 2005, Sharon Grehan, Random Acts of Malice, page 56:
text: From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.[…] But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka’s capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India’s southern tip.
ref: 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, archived from the original on 29 Sep 2020, page 52:
text: State legislative races tend to come cheap, with low turnout and tiny margins despite how state capitals have taken on an ever larger role amid legislative stalemate in Washington, DC. In 2020, a combined total of 46,000 votes determined which party was in majority control in 13 different state legislature chambers across the country.
ref: 2022 April 5, Edward-Isaac Dovere, “Why these Democrats think 25 state legislative races are the key to securing the 2024 presidential election”, in CNN:
text: Wearing his best suit and sunglasses, the sultan of Slowjamastan officially declared independence from the United States of America at 12:26 p.m. on December 1, 2021 as he broadcast the secession live from his open-air government “office” in Dublândia, the capital of the Republic of Slowjamastan.
ref: 2023 June 8, Richard Collett, “He ran out of countries to visit, so he created his own”, in CNN:
glosses: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.
examples: text: Hollywood is the film capital, New York the theater capital, Las Vegas the gambling capital.
ref: 2010 September, Charlie Brennan, "Active Athletes", St. Louis magazine, ISSN 1090-5723, volume 16, issue 9, page 83
glosses: The most important city in the field specified.
glosses: An uppercase letter.
examples: text: Interpreters need a good amount of cultural capital in order to function efficiently in the profession.
glosses: Knowledge; awareness; proficiency.
glosses: The chief or most important thing.
Synonyms: sense: An uppercase letter
word: caps
sense: An uppercase letter
word: majuscule
Derived terms: Capital Regional District