capitalとは 意味・読み方・使い方

別の表記

• capitall (廃れた用法)

語源

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”.

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

発音

• (英国発音, 米国発音) IPA^(key): /ˈkæp.ɪ.təl/
• (米国発音) IPA^(key): [ˈkæp.ɪ.ɾəl]
  • Homophone: capitol

名詞

capital (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 capitals)

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.
   • 1995, Fang, Linda, The Chʻi-lin Purse: A Collection of Ancient Chinese Stories‎^[1], New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 54:

     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.

   • 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:

     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.

   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.
   • 2010 September, Charlie Brennan, "Active Athletes", St. Louis magazine, ISSN 1090-5723, volume 16, issue 9, page 83:

     Hollywood is the film capital, New York the theater capital, Las Vegas the gambling capital.

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.

使用する際の注意点

The homophone capitol refers only to a building, usually one that houses the legislative branch of a government, and often one located in a capital city.

同意語

• (An uppercase letter): caps (in the plural), majuscule

反意語

• (An uppercase letter): minuscule

形容詞

capital (not comparable)

1. Of prime importance.
   • 1708, Francis Atterbury, Fourteen Sermons Preach'd on Several Occasions : Preface

     a capital article in religion

   • 1852, Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening:

     whatever is capital and essential in Christianity

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!

   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 166:

     Sometimes he laughed heartily as if he heard some capital joke; by degrees this lessened, and he spoke rapidly, but in very low tones.

4. (crime) Punishable by, or involving punishment by, death.
   • 1709, [Jonathan Swift], A Project for the Advancement of Religion, and the Reformation of Manners. […], London: […] Benj[amin] Tooke, […], →OCLC, pages 53–54:

     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.

   • 1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC:

     to put to death a capital offender

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 517:

     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.

5. Uppercase.

   Antonym: lower-case

   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!

      • 2021 February 9, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC‎^[2]:

        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.

6. Of or relating to the head.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise / Expect with mortal pain.

派生語

関連する語

参照

• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “capital”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• capital at OneLook Dictionary Search

アナグラム

• palatic, placita

Latin

語源

Substantive form of capitālis (“mortal, relating to the head”).

発音

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈka.pi.tal/, [ˈkäpɪt̪äɫ̪]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈka.pi.tal/, [ˈkäːpit̪äl]

名詞

capital n (genitive capitālis); third declension

1. a capital offence; a crime punishable by death, civil death, or exile

   capital facere ― to commit a capital offence

語形変化

Third-declension noun (neuter, “pure” i-stem).

参照

• “capital”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “capital”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers