capitalとは 意味・読み方・使い方

別の表記

• capitall (obsolete)

発音

• (英国発音, 米国発音) IPA: /ˈkæpɪtəl/
  • (米国発音) IPA: [ˈkʰæp.ɪ.ɾɫ̩]
• Homophone: capitol
• 韻: -æpɪtəl

語源 1

From 中期英語 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.

名詞

capital (countable and uncountable, plural 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. (uncountable, politics) The capitalist class; investors considered collectively with respect to their societal (economic, political, cultural, etc.) influence.

   The markets crashing symbolized capital’s discontent with the tax reforms passed.

4. (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.

   Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States of America.

   The Welsh government claims that Cardiff is Europe’s youngest capital.

   • 1995, Linda Fang, The Chʻi-lin Purse: A Collection of Ancient Chinese Stories‎, 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.

   • 2005, Sharon Grehan, Random Acts of Malice, page 56:

     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.

   • 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8839, archived from the original on 29 September 2020, 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.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 2023 June 8, Richard Collett, “He ran out of countries to visit, so he created his own”, in CNN‎:

     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.

5. (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.

6. (countable) An uppercase letter.

   Synonyms: caps, majuscule

   Antonym: minuscule

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.

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, UK, dated) Excellent.

   That is a capital idea!

   • 1878, Henry James, An International Episode‎:

     “He is a capital fellow,” the Englishman in London had said, “and he has got an awfully pretty wife. […] ”

   • 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.

   capital punishment; capital murder

   • 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, published 2003, page 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.

   Synonyms: majuscular, 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:

        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], 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:

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

派生語

関連する語

間投詞

capital

1. (slang, dated) used as an expression of approval, satisfaction, or delight.

   That's an amazing idea! Capital!

   • 1918, Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett, White Nights, page 83:

     "Capital! And I shall soon get a bonus."

語源 2

A Doric capital

An Ionic capital

A Corinthian capital

A Composite capital

From 中期英語 capitale, partly from Old French capital and partly from Late Latin capitellum (“capital or chapiter of a column”), a form of Latin capitulum (“head-like object or structure; chapter”) (whence English capitulum, chapter, and the synonym chapiter (“uppermost part of a column”)), from caput (“head”) + -ulum (diminutive suffix). Doublet of caddie, cadel, cadet, capitellum, and caudillo.

名詞

capital (plural capitals)

1. (countable, architecture) The uppermost part of a column.

   Synonym: chapiter

   • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 3:

     But a great wonder of this chamber, and a marvel to behold, was how the capital of every one of the four-and-twenty pillars was hewn from a single precious stone, carved by the hand of some sculptor of long ago into the living form of a monster: […]

参照

• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “capital”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “capital”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

アナグラム

• palatic, placita

発音

• (Classical Latin) IPA: [ˈka.pɪ.taɫ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: [ˈkaː.pi.tal]

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