capital

Etymology

From Middle English capital, borrowed from Latin capitālis (“of the head”) (in sense “head of cattle”), from caput (“head”) (English cap). Use in trade and finance originated in Medieval economies when a common but expensive transaction involved trading heads of cattle. Compare chattel and kith and kine (“all one’s possessions”), which also use “cow” to mean “property”.

noun

1. (uncountable, economics) Already-produced durable goods available for use as a factor of production, such as steam shovels (equipment) and office buildings (structures).
2. (uncountable, business, finance, insurance) Money and wealth. The means to acquire goods and services, especially in a non-barter system.
   He does not have enough capital to start a business.
3. (countable) 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.
   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. 1995, Linda Fang, The Chʻi-lin Purse: A Collection of Ancient Chinese Stories, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 54
   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. 2013-06-08, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52
   Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States of America.
   The Welsh government claims that Cardiff is Europe’s youngest capital.
4. (countable) The most important city in the field specified.
   Hollywood is the film capital, New York the theater capital, Las Vegas the gambling capital. 2010 September, Charlie Brennan, "Active Athletes", St. Louis magazine, ISSN 1090-5723, volume 16, issue 9, page 83
5. (countable) An uppercase letter.
6. (countable, architecture) The uppermost part of a column.
7. (uncountable) Knowledge; awareness; proficiency.
   Interpreters need a good amount of cultural capital in order to function efficiently in the profession.
8. (countable, by extension) The chief or most important thing.

adj

1. Of prime importance.
   a capital article in religion 1708, Francis Atterbury, Fourteen Sermons Preach'd on Several Occasions, Preface
   whatever is capital and essential in Christianity 1852, Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening
2. Chief, in a political sense, as being the seat of the general government of a state or nation.
   London and Paris are capital cities.
3. (comparable, Britain, dated) Excellent.
   That is a capital idea!
   Sometimes he laughed heartily as if he heard some capital joke; by degrees this lessened, and he spoke rapidly, but in very low tones. 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 166
4. (crime) Punishable by, or involving punishment by, death.
   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. 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 517
5. Uppercase.
   One begins a sentence with a capital letter.
   1. used to emphasise greatness or absoluteness
      You're a genius with a capital G!
      He's dead with a capital D!
      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. February 9 2021, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC
6. Of or relating to the head.