| 释义 |
▪ I. capital, n.1|ˈkæpɪtəl|
Forms: 3 capitale, 5 capital, 6–7 capitell, -el, (7 capitull, -ol), 7– capital.
[Answers to L. capitell-um in same sense (dim. of caput head, or rather of its dim. capitulum), and its representatives, It. capitello, OF. capitel, chapitel, now chapiteau; but from the beginning tending to confusion with the adj. capital, to which it is now assimilated. Italian influence favoured capitel(l) in the 17th c.]
1. The head or top of a column or pillar.
c1290Land Cokaygne 69 in E.E.P. (1862) 158 Þe pilers..Wiþ harlas, and capitale Of grene jaspe and rede corale. 1413Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle iv. xxxvi. (1483) 83 The legges ben as it were pylers..the knees ben the capitals and the feete the bases. 1563Shute Archit. B j b, In the Capitel, was set Voluta..for an ornature and garnishment of the Capitell. 1604Drayton Owle 629 From the Base, up to the Capitell. 1660H. Bloome Archit. E a, Corinthian Capitall. 1670R. Lassels Voy. Italy II. 157 Four great Pillars..adorned with Capitels..of brasse guilt. 1747Scheme Equip. Men of War 60 On the Capitol, Victory, Trade, Peace and Plenty might be expressed. 1851Ruskin Stones Ven. (1874) I. vii. 72 A capital is only the cornice of a column.
2. The head or cap of a chimney, crucible, etc.
1715Desaguliers Fires Impr. 79 Such a Capital will wholly hinder the Wind from going into the Chimney. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Capital of a lanthorn..Capital of a mill. 1800Henry Epit. Chem. (1808) 148 An alembic, covered with its capital.
¶3. A chapter of a book. (for capitle.)
1819Scott Ivanhoe xxxvii, Holy St. Bernard in the rule of our..profession, hath said, in the fifty-ninth capital, etc.
▪ II. capital, n.2
see B. under the adj.
▪ III. capital, a. and n.2|ˈkæpɪtəl|
Forms: 3–4 capitale, 5–7 capitall(e, 5–6 capytal(l, 7 capitoll, 4– capital.
[a. F. capital (12th c.), ad. L. capitāl-is, in legal and ecclesiastical use. The actual F. descendant of the L. word is cheptel (pronounced chetel).]
A. adj.
I. Relating to the head.
†1. Of or pertaining to the head or top. Obs.
a1225Ancr. R. 258 Wiðuten eddren capitalen þet bledden on his hefde. 1486Bk. St. Albans, Her. F j, Sparris..put..by the maner of an hede, and ij syche sparris ionyt togedyr make a capitall sygne. 1616Chapman Homer's Batrachom. 9 Their parts capitall They hid. 1667Milton P.L. xii. 383 His [the Serpent's] capital bruise. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. xiii. 34 A Pillar Composed in the Capital part.
2. a. Affecting, or involving loss of, the head or life.
1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 184/3 To haue capytal sentence & be beheded. 1581Lambarde Eiren. i. xii. (1588) 67 Capitall (or deadly) punishment is done sundry wayes. 1770Langhorne Plutarch (1879) I. 181/2 Cimon..narrowly escaped a capital sentence. 1868Spectator 19 Dec. 1487 We never remember a capital verdict upon such insufficient evidence.
b. Punishable by death. For the distinction (from 1957 to 1965) of capital murder: see quot. 1957.
1526Frith Purgat. 201 Whosoever hath committed a capital crime. 1688Stradling Serm. (1692) 168 The Egyptians made it Capital to affirm that their God Apis was dead. a1745Swift Wks. (1841) II. 154 Guilty of a capital crime. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) III. xvii. 330 It was capital to preach even in houses. 1957Act 5 & 6 Eliz. II c. 11 §5 The following murders shall be capital murders..(a) any murder done in the course or furtherance of theft; (b) any murder done by shooting [etc.]. Ibid., Where it is alleged that a person accused of murder is guilty of capital murder, the offence shall be charged as capital murder in the indictment.
†c. Of persons: Dealing with capital crimes; also, capitally condemned. Obs.
1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. 106 They, as Capytall Iudges, geue definytiue sentence of lyfe and death. 1631Gouge God's Arrows iii. §60. 295 Putting capitall malefactors to death. 1644Prynne Check to Britan. 4 An impenitent, obdurate, Capitall Delinquent.
†d. Fatal. Obs.
a1626Bacon (J.) War, which is capital to thousands. 1701Collier M. Antoninus 11 In the Reign of Adrian an excellency of almost any kind was sometimes Capital to the Owner.
e. Roman Law. Involving loss of civil rights.
1838Arnold Hist. Rome (1846) I. xiv. 289 The punishment of a libeller involved in it a diminutio capitis, and was thus in the Roman sense of the term capital.
†3. Said of an enemy or enmity: Deadly, mortal. Obs.
1375Barbour Bruce iii. 2 The lord off lorne..That wes capitale ennymy To the king. 1502Arnolde Chron. (1811) 283 A capital enmyte lyke to haue endured for euer. 1670Cotton Espernon i. iii. 109 The Bishop was his capital Enemy. 1762Hume Hist. Eng. (1806) IV. liv. 162 The capital enemy of their country.
4. fig. Of defects, errors, and the like: Fatal, vitally injurious, most serious, radical. (Passing into sense 6 d.)
1538Starkey England 128 You have notyd such [faults] as be most capytal. 1581Mulcaster Positions xxxiii. (1887) 121 Immoderate exercise..a very capitall enemie to health. 1612T. Taylor Comm. Titus ii. 10 (1619) 429 It is more capitall to smite the master then a stranger. 1734tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) II. ii. 34 Hannibal's stay at Capua was a capital blemish in his conduct. 1855Prescott Philip II, ii. v. (1857) 249 In the outset, he seems to have fallen into a capital error.
II. Standing at the head. lit. and fig.
5. a. Of words and letters: † Standing at the head of a page, or at the beginning of a line or paragraph, initial (obs.). capital letters: letters of the form and relative size used in this position.
c1391Chaucer Astrol. 8 This same bordure is devyded..with 23 lettres capitals. 1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls Ser.) IV. 299 The capitalle letters..expresse this sentence. 1490Caxton Eneydos xxii. 84 The grete capitalle lettres of the bygynnynge..of the psalmes and chapytres..ben alle mayde fayre. 1584D. Powel Lloyd's Cambria 9 It is easy for the C. Capitall to creepe in. 1662Pepys Diary 11 June, To have the capitall words wrote with red ink. 1676Moxon Print. Lett. 10 Use a Capital Letter.. in all Proper Names. 1811J. Bannatine in Monthly Mag. XXXIV. 429 One very modern improvement in writing and printing..dropping the capital letters, except in the beginning of sentences, etc.
b. Introducing (a repetition of) the initial letter of a word, for emphasis, etc.
1863Dickens in All Yr. Round Christmas 3/2 ‘Capital D her!’ bursts out Caroline. 1892I. Zangwill Childr. Ghetto (1893) ii. xv. 381 ‘Oh, Leon, Leon, you'll turn Catholic soon!’ said Strelitski reprovingly. ‘Not with a capital C,’ said Raphael, laughing. 1902H. James Wings of Dove iv. 66 Kate had mentioned..that her aunt was Passionate..uttering it as with a capital P. a1930D. H. Lawrence Phoenix (1936) iv. 534 Life with a capital L is only man alive. 1956A. J. Toynbee Historian's Appr. Relig. xi. 147 He assumed that this was the mature and perfect form of Civilized Society: Civilization with a capital ‘C’. 1966Sunday Times 13 Nov. 10/4 A subtle attack upon the stability of our very own Monarchy, with a capital M.
6. Chief; head-:
a. of persons. arch. or Obs.
c1425Wyntoun Cron. vi. xix. 37 Of þis Lawch are thre capytale. 1461–82Liber Niger Edw. IV in Househ. Ord. 73 This sergeaunt, capitall Buttler. 1530Test. Ebor. (Surtees) V. 293 Capital Sanctes under God of the aforsaid kirkes. 1614T. Adams Divel's Banq. 213 Diseases, which be Deaths capitall Chirurgions. 1683Lond. Gaz. No. 1866/4 The Mayor, Aldermen, Bayliff, Capital Burgesses, and Commonalty of..Waymouth. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Capital lord..the lord of the fee. 1810in Risdon's Surv. Devon 426 A Mayor, assisted by 18 capital burgesses.
b. of mansions, estates, towns, and cities. capital manor: one held in capite, or directly from the King. capital messuage: that occupied by the owner of a property containing several messuages. capital town or capital city = capital n. (see B. 2 below).
1539Act 31 Hen. VIII, v, The saide manour of Hampton courte shall..be the chiefe and capitall place and parte of the saide honour of Hampton courte. 1601Holland Pliny I. 125 From thence..to the capitoll towne of the Arachosians, 515 miles. 1642Perkins Prof. Bk. v. §406. 175 The heire is not compellable to assigne unto his mother..the capitall messuage which was his Fathers. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 924 Battering Engines bent to rase Som Capital City. Ibid. xi. 343 This had been Perhaps thy Capital Seate, from whence had spred All generations. 1768Blackstone Comm. II. 214 The eldest son had the capital fee or principal feud of his father's possessions. 1774T. Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry (1840) I. 18 Chained in the cloister, or church, of some capital monastery. 1809Bawden tr. Domesday Bk. 589 The Abbot of Westminster claims all this because the capital manor is given to St. Peter.
c. of ships: ‘Of the line’; first-rate.
1652in Mariner's Mirror (1926) XII. 399 They are between the I. of Wight and Portland with 45 sail, 12 of which are capital ships. 1688Lond. Gaz. No. 2397/4 The Capital Ships are off of Torbay about 4 Leagues from the Shore. 1766Smollett Hist. Eng. (1804) V. 248 Of these capital ships (those of the line), 17 were stationed in the East Indies. 1793Ld. Howe in Barrow Life (1838) 214 Under a repeated fire from three or four of their capital ships. 1805D. Macpherson Ann. Commerce III. 250 They..took from our English East-India company their most important fort..; they also took one of that company's capital ships. 1909Hansard Commons I. 1110/2 Mr. Robert Harcourt asked the First Lord of the Admiralty if he was prepared to give an official definition of the term capital ship? Mr. M‘Kenna: The Board of Admiralty have never sanctioned the official use of the term, and they do not deem it expedient to do so. 1919Daily Tel. 11 Aug. 9/6 The battle-fleet force became a vast assemblage of capital vessels, cruisers, light cruisers, destroyers and submarines. 1928Britain's Industr. Future v. xxx. 426 A capital-ship base at Singapore.
d. of other things.
a1535More De quat. Noviss. Wks. 85/2, Ii. capitall vyces, that is to wit enuye and couityce. 1597J. Payne Royal Exch. 44 Love ys the capitall affection in men and wemen. 1671Milton Samson 394 To win from me My capital secret. 1749Chesterfield Lett. II. clxxxv. 189 The Last Supper, by Paul Veronese..is reckoned his capital performance. 1872R. W. Dale Commandm. 7 The old traditions..made Obedience the capital virtue of childhood.
e. less strictly. Main, leading, weighty, important, first-class.
1724A. Collins Gr. Chr. Relig. 20 Several capital places in the sacred Writers. 1767Gooch Treat. Wounds 182 These preparatory rules, generally necessary before any capital operation. 1788Priestley Lect. Hist. i. i. 5 All history has a capital advantage over every work of fiction. 1793W. Roberts Looker-on No. 47 He..espoused the daughter of a capital grocer. 1818Hazlitt Eng. Poets vi. (1870) 146 So capital and undeniable a proof of the author's talents.
7. In mod. use: Excellent, ‘first-rate’. Often as an exclamation of approval.
1762Ld. Radnor in Priv. Lett. 1st Ld. Malmesbury I. 85 The Hobbema is also a very capital picture. 1791‘G. Gambado’ Ann. Horsem. vi. (1809) 91 He clears every thing with his fore legs in a capital style. 1835T. Hook G. Gurney I. ii, Nobody said capital, or even good, or even tolerable. 1870E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. III. 26 He was a capital companion. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 100 Capital, Socrates; by the gods, that is truly good.
8. Of or pertaining to the original funds of a trader, company, or corporation; principal; hence, serving as a basis for financial and other operations.
1709Lond. Gaz. No. 4534/1 An Act for Enlarging the Capital Stock of the Bank of England. 1776Adam Smith W.N. I. i. ix. 98 The capital stock of Great Britain was not diminished even by the enormous expense of the late war. 1825Southey in Q. Rev. XXXII. 41 Compelled..to encroach largely upon its capital fund. 1884Ld. Selborne in Law Rep. 25 Chanc. Div. 689 She may commute into a capital sum..the benefit given to her..by way of annuity.
III. †9. capital lye: the first or strongest alkaline solution employed in the process of soap-making. Obs. [Cf. F. capitel in same sense, med.L. capitellum ‘aqua saponis vel lixivium’, It. capitello ‘lie to wash and skoure with’ (Florio). So that strictly this is a distinct word.]
1704Worlidge Dict. Rust. et Urb. s.v. Soap, The Magistral or Capital Lye..is so strong, that an Egg will swim therein. 1731Bailey, Capital Lees, are the strong Lees, made by Soap-boilers from Pot-ashes.
B. n. [Several elliptical uses of the adjective.]
1. A capital letter. Hence to speak in capitals: i.e. with emphasis. (Cf. A. 5.)
1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Rich. II, cxvii, Noe Character so small, But through that Glass appeares a Capitall. 1676Moxon Print. Lett. 5 A, B, C, etc. are Capitals. 1733Swift On Poetry 99 When in Capitals exprest, The dullest reader smokes the jest. 1871L. W. M. Lockhart Fair to See I. 4 (Hoppe) ‘And I am!’ cried Fuskisson, a little white ensign, speaking in large capitals, with a voice like a Jew's harp. 1873Burton Hist. Scot. VI. lxviii. 147 The Service-book was amply decorated with pictorial capitals.
2. A capital town or city; the head town of a country, province or state.
1667Milton P.L. i. 756 Pandæmonium, the high Capital Of Satan and his Peers. 1750Johnson Rambl. No. 49 ⁋4 He that, like Cæsar, would rather be the first man of a village, than the second in the capital of the world. 1853Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. ix. 115 §2 A constant round from the capital to the watering place, and from the watering place to the capital.
3. A capital stock or fund.
a. Commerce. The stock of a company, corporation, or individual with which they enter into business and on which profits or dividends are calculated; in a joint-stock company, it consists of the total sum of the contributions of the shareholders. Also, the general body of capitalists or employers of labour, esp. with regard to its political interests and claims (cf. labour n. 2 b).
b. Pol. Econ. The accumulated wealth of an individual, company, or community, used as a fund for carrying on fresh production; wealth in any form used to help in producing more wealth.
[1611Cotgr., Capital, wealth, worth; a stocke, a man's principall, or chiefe, substance.] 1630–9Wotton Lett. & Treat. 459 (K.O.) 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. vii. (1847) 441/1 Such anticipations upon all kinds of receipts for monies borrowed and already spent, that they had no capital for future security. 1727–51Chambers Cycl. s.v., Power given by Parliament to the South-Sea Company to increase their capital. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. 51 You began ill..You set up your trade without a capital. 1793Bentham Emancip. Col. Wks. 1843 IV. 411 In proportion to the quantity of capital a country has at its disposal, will..be the quantity of its trade. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 442 The gentlemen of fortune turn their capitals into this channel. 1825McCulloch Pol. Econ. ii. ii. 73 The accumulation..of the produce of previous labour, or, as it is more commonly termed, of capital or stock. Ibid. 114 Credit..enables those who have capitals..to lend them to those who are desirous to obtain them. 1863Fenn Eng. & For. Funds 26 Bank Stock..is the capital of the Corporation of the Bank of England. 1869Eng. Mechanic 4 June 237/3 We might feel inclined to despair over the chances of Giant Capital and Dwarf Labour ever working harmoniously. 1874Helps Soc. Press. iii. 54 The immense difficulty that it is for any human being without capital to ensure himself a living. 1929D. H. Lawrence in Star Rev. Nov. 626 The Soviet hates the real physical body far more deeply even than it hates Capital. 1940W. Temple Thoughts in War-time iv. 26 When we reach the stage of justice in the relations between capital and labour.
c. fixed capital: that which remains in the owner's possession, as working cattle, tools, machinery, etc. circulating capital, floating capital: that which is constantly changing hands or passing from one form into another, as goods, money, etc.
1776Adam Smith W.N. (1869) I. ii. i. 276 His capital is continually going from him in one shape, and returning to him in another. Such capitals..may..be called circulating capitals. 1825McCulloch Pol. Econ. ii. ii. 95 What could he do without the assistance of fixed capital or tools?
d. fig.; also phrase, to make capital out of: to turn to account.
1847Helps Friends in C. (1851) I. 28 To reject the accumulated mental capital of ages. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxv. (1869) IV. 314 He tried to make..political capital out of the desolation of his house. 1865Mrs. J. H. Riddell G. Geith II. ii. 26 The quietest, most conciliating manners that ever a man made capital out of. 1885Stevenson Dr. Jekyll i. 8 If you choose to make capital out of this accident.
4. Fortif. (See quot.)
1706Phillips, Capital, the line..drawn either from the angle of the Polygon to the point of the Bastion, or from the point of the Bastion to the middle of the Gorge. 1853Stocqueler Mil. Encycl., Capital..is an imaginary line bisecting the salient angle of a work.
†5. (See quot.) Obs.
1799G. Smith Laborat. I. 188 One part of capital or cream of clay.
6. (attrib. use of 3) capital account, capital stock; capital bonus, a pro rata bonus distributed in shares; capital expenditure (see quot. 1959); capital gain (orig. U.S.), a profit from the sale of investments or property; freq. used attrib. in capital gains tax; capital goods, commodities forming capital; economic goods (e.g. railways, ships, machinery, buildings) destined for use in production, opp. to consumers' goods; capital levy, the confiscation by the state of a proportion of privately-owned wealth or property; capital transfer tax, a tax levied on transfer of capital by gift, bequest, etc. (replacing estate duty in 1975 and replaced by inheritance tax in 1986).
1895Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Engin. CXXII. 224 When the North-Eastern Railway Company..includes the cost of between three and four hundred locomotives, which had presumably been charged to revenue, in the capital stock without any increase in capital account. Ibid. 234 The engine-miles run (excluding those by ‘capital’ engines) were 58,202,648. 1898S. S. Dawson Accountant's Compendium 47/2 Capital expenditure..In its more restricted sense the term implies the expenditure of the capital receipts of a company or other body upon the construction of a particular work, e.g., a railway. 1899J. B. Clark Distrib. Wealth ix. 116 The differences that science must recognize between ‘capital’ and ‘capital-goods’. 1919Hansard Commons CXVI. 235, I do not see how you can have a capital levy under war conditions. 1921Washington Post 16 Aug. 4/2 The bill redefines capital gain and capital loss, declaring the former to mean ‘taxable gain from the sale or exchange of capital assets’. 1928Daily Chron. 9 Aug. 8/4 The directors..have distributed a number of capital bonuses among their fortunate Ordinary shareholders. 1931Times Trade & Engin. Suppl. 24 Jan. 430/4 The production of ‘capital goods’ which are not ‘consumed’ immediately the money is spent upon them, but contribute a quota to the national wealth over many future years. 1951L. H. Seltzer (title) The nature and tax treatment of capital gains and losses. 1959Jowitt Dict. Eng. Law I. 310/1 Capital expenditure, expenditure from which benefits may be expected over a relatively long period, as opposed to revenue expenditure;..expenditure on capital or fixed assets. 1962Times 10 Apr. 13/2 The Chancellor of the Exchequer..proposed an uncommonly large number of tax changes... Several are controversial: the pledge on ending Schedule A; the capital gains tax, [etc.]. 1970Money Which? Mar. 4/1 Capital Gains Tax. You may have to pay this tax on most capital gains—for instance, the gain you make when you sell shares at a higher price than you bought them for. 1974Hansard Commons 12 Nov. 276 The new capital transfer tax will replace the estate duty on deaths after the Bill has received Royal Assent. 1978Listener 8 June 718 Now comes the new squirearchy: bowler-hatted money managers from the City, eased into landed power with the help of capital transfer tax and the..demise of the wealthy owner-farmer. 1986Daily Tel. 24 May 14/5 The president of the Historic Houses Association..plays down too much euphoria over the Chancellor's proposed substitution of inheritance tax for capital transfer tax.
▸ capital sin n.a. Also capital vice n. Theol.After post-classical Latin capitale peccatum (4th cent.), vitium capitale (6th cent.; already in classical Latin in secular sense). In scholastic thought, and traditional Christian moral theology originating from this: each of the seven major categories of transgression (sometimes also called the deadly sins or cardinal sins), understood as being the root of all other sins; a sin belonging to one of these categories. Hence also: any major sin. Cf. sense A. 6d.
The capital sins or vices are usually enumerated as pride, avarice, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth, understood as types of sin, irrespective of the gravity of their commission in any particular case.
1526Pylgrimage of Perfection (1531) 91 b, These ben called..capytall vyces, bycause other shrewde children ryseth of them. a1602W. Perkins Cases of Consc. (1619) 64 Their great and capitall sins, that stinged and wounded their consciences. 1633F. Gerville Alaham Prologus 2 The sinnes that enter here are capitall: atheisme, where creatures their Creator lose; unthankfull pride, nature, and graces fall. 1750S. Richardson Familiar Lett. (ed. 4) clxxii. 269 His morals were still untainted, and he was not cut off in the Pursuit of some capital sin. 1800E. Hervey Mourtray Family II. 261 Capital vices? Say, rather, fashionable errors. 1882Catholic World May 217 His capital vice of pride was one which men commonly are prone to pardon easily in a great man. 1896Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 2 103 Not only does unbelief become the capital sin and belief the capital virtue, but even thumbscrew and stake, ban and outlawry will be used to crush out heresy. 1959Yale French Stud. No. 23. 57 Pride not licentiousness is the capital sin for Marguerite de Navarre. 1986S. Soriano & I. Soriano in C. Galerstein Women Writers of Spain 224 The author analyzes the capital vice of avarice, the crazed passion for money. 2003Gaz. (Montreal) (Nexis) 16 Mar. a19 He wrote that the capital sin of gluttony was mistranslated.
b. fig. or hyperbolical. A major fault of error; = cardinal adj. Additions b. Cf. sense A. 4.
a1639J. Ford Queen (1653) iv. sig. E1, Every man is blind (my lord) in his own happiness, there's the curse of our mortality. She was the very tale of the world: Her perfections busied all tongues... Whose full fruition you (and 'twas your capital sin) most inhumanly abandoned. 1814M. Edgeworth Patronage II. xxii. 274 He maintained, that no man can speak with ease, and security, in public, till custom has brought him to feel it as a moral impossibility, that..he could be convicted of any capital sin against grammar. 1882Jrnl. Amer. Geogr. Soc. 14 100 A capital sin of omission to the north is the great dyke so conspicuous near Tamieh. 1981Chem. Week (Nexis) 4 Mar. 3 It wastes financial and intellectual resources—and easily qualifies as a capital sin of industrial management. 1998Church Times 1 May 17/3 He sees all the capital sins against ecology encapsulated in Brazil.
▸ capital structure n. Finance the relative distribution between debt and equity of the overall finance of a company or other business concern.
1913Wall St. Jrnl. 9 Aug. 5/5 The heavy bonded indebtedness that had been saddled on the road originally... To relieve the road of this burden its *capital structure was materially lightened and fixed charges reduced by over 30%. 2002E. McLaney & P. Atrill Accounting (rev. ed.) vii. 215 The gearing ratio measures the contribution of long-term lenders to the long-term capital structure of a business.
▪ IV. capital, v.|ˈkæpɪtəl|
[f. the n.]
trans. To furnish or adorn with a capital.
1851Ruskin Stones Ven. I. ix. §29 They shod and capitaled the mouldings till they looked like a group of shafts. |