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Capital

 

a.

[F. capital, L. capitalis capital (in senses 1 & 2), fr. caput head. See Chief, and cf. Capital, n.]

1. Of or pertaining to the head. [Obs.]

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

2. Having reference to, or involving, the forfeiture of the head or life; affecting life; punishable with death; as, capital trials; capital punishment.

Many crimes that are capital among us.
Swift.

To put to death a capital offender.
Milton.

3. First in importance; chief; principal.

A capital article in religion
Atterbury.

Whatever is capital and essential in Christianity.
I. Taylor.

4. Chief, in a political sense, as being the seat of the general government of a state or nation; as, Washington and Paris are capital cities.

5. Of first rate quality; excellent; as, a capital speech or song. [Colloq.]

Capital letter [F, lettre capitale]
(Print.), a leading or heading letter, used at the beginning of a sentence and as the first letter of certain words, distinguished, for the most part, both by different form and larger size, from the small (lower-case) letters, which form the greater part of common print or writing. -- Small capital letters have the form of capital letters and height of the body of the lower-case letters. -- Capital stock, money, property, or stock invested in any business, or the enterprise of any corporation or institution. Abbott.

Syn. -- Chief; leading; controlling; prominent.

cap·i·tal
n. (kăp"ĭ*tal)

[Cf. L. capitellum and capitulum, a small head, the head, top, or capital of a column, dim. of caput head; F. chapiteau, OF. capitel. See chief, and cf. cattle, chattel, chapiter, chapter.]

1. (Arch.) The head or uppermost member of a column, pilaster, etc. It consists generally of three parts, abacus, bell (or vase), and necking. See these terms, and Column.

2. [Cf. F. capilate, fem., sc. ville.]
(Geog.) The seat of government; the chief city or town in a country; a metropolis. «A busy and splendid capital» Macauly.

3. [Cf. F. capital.]
Money, property, or stock employed in trade, manufactures, etc.; the sum invested or lent, as distinguished from the income or interest. See Capital stock, under Capital, a.

4. (Polit. Econ.) That portion of the produce of industry, which may be directly employed either to support human beings or to assist in production. M'Culloch.

Note: When wealth is used to assist production it is called capital. The capital of a civilized community includes fixed capital (i.e. buildings, machines, and roads used in the course of production and exchange) and circulating capital (i.e., food, fuel, money, etc., spent in the course of production and exchange). T. Raleigh.

5. Anything which can be used to increase one's power or influence.

He tried to make capital out of his rival's discomfiture.
London Times.

6. (Fort.) An imaginary line dividing a bastion, ravelin, or other work, into two equal parts.

7. A chapter, or section, of a book. [Obs.]

Holy St. Bernard hath said in the 59th capital.
Sir W. Scott.

8. (Print.) See Capital letter, under Capital, a.

Active capital. See under Active, -- Small capital (Print.), a small capital letter; informally referred to (in the plural) as small caps; as, the technical terms are listed in small caps. See under Capital, a. -- To live on one's capital, to consume one's capital without producing or accumulating anything to replace it.


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The topmost structural member of a column, pilaster, anta, or the like, often decorated; may support an architrave, 1 or may be surmounted by an impost. See illustrations under the various orders; also see angle capital, basket capital, bracket capital, bud capital, Byzantine capital (illustrated under Byzantine architecture),

capital: nomenclature
capitals
Composite capital, Corinthian capital, corner capital, cushion capital, Doric capital, Hathoric capital, protomaic capital, Ionic capital, lotus capital, palm capital, scalloped capital, water-leaf capital.

Devil's Dictionary:

capital

Top
A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce


n.

The seat of misgovernment. That which provides the fire, the pot, the dinner, the table and the knife and fork for the anarchist; the part of the repast that himself supplies is the disgrace before meat. Capital Punishment, a penalty regarding the justice and expediency of which many worthy persons -- including all the assassins -- entertain grave misgivings.


Capital in architecture : ancient Corinthian capital in the Great Mosque of kairouan, Tunisia.

Capital may refer to:

  • Capital city, the area of a country, province, region, or state, regarded as enjoying primary status, usually but not always the seat of the government
  • Capital (economics), a factor of production that is not wanted for itself but for its ability to help in producing other goods
  • Capital (architecture), the crowning member of a column or a pilaster
  • Capital letter, an upper-case letter in a writing system
  • Five Capitals, a model of sustainable development developed by the organization Forum for the Future
Contents

Forms of capital

  • Capital requirement or "bank capital", the requirement that banks keep certain monetary reserves
  • Cultural capital, the advantage individuals can gain from mastering the cultural tastes of a privileged group
  • Financial capital, any form of wealth capable of being employed in the production of more wealth
  • Human capital, workers' skills and abilities as regards their contribution to an economy
  • Infrastructural capital, means of production other than natural capital.
  • Natural capital, the resources of an ecosystem that yields a flow of goods and services into the future
  • Physical capital, any non-human asset made by humans and then used in production
  • Political capital, means by which a politician or political party may gain support or popularity
  • Social capital, the value of social networks to individuals embedded in them
  • Working capital, short term capital needed by the company to finance its operations

Publications

Colleges, Seminaries, and Universities

Media

Sports

Other

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ Elisabeth Mahoney, Can Capital Radio cater for the whole nation ?, 3 January 2011 (theguardian)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. Webster 1913 Dictionary edited by Patrick J. Cassidy  Read more
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture & Construction. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Devil's Dictionary. Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, 1911  Read more
Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Capital Read more

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