English
capital
Capital comes from Middle English capital.
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English capital
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1649, John Milton, London: […] Matthew Simmons: “to put to death a capital offender”.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500capitalWiktionary, English capital
- Englishearliest quotation 1649capitalWiktionary, English capital. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1649, John Milton, London: […] Matthew Simmons: “to put to death a capital offender”
The story
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. In the fourth sense, displaced native Old English hēafodburg, equivalent to head + borough (‘city’).
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Another origin of capital
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kap-‘head’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*káput‘head’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kaput‘head’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcaput‘head’uncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcapitulum‘head-like object or structure’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400capital
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500capitale
- Englishtodaycapital
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Today it means
noun Money and wealth: the means to acquire or produce goods and services, especially in a non-barter system.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “capital”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Middle English capital / capital