capitalist

Etymology

It was formed from English capital + -ist in the sense of capital as wealth,^[2][3][4] after French capitaliste,^[2][5][6] which itself followed capitalist.^[2][7] The Dutch word meant a person subject to a capital tax (1621) and then a rich person (1683); French borrowed it for the same tax in the Netherlands (1678) and used it for an investor from the mid-18th century,^[2] and Etymonline calls the French word a term of reproach coined in the Revolution.^[5] Merriam-Webster derives the English word from French, Dutch or German, with the Dutch word taken from German Kapitalist.^[7] The noun capital "wealth, stock" goes back to Medieval Latin capitāle (“stock, property”), from capitālis (“of the head, chief”), from caput (“head”).^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who owns capital, especially one who invests it in business for profit: 1774, in Philip Francis's translation of Isaac de Pinto's Essay on Circulation.^[2] Etymonline and Barnhart date the word to 1791, Barnhart to a use by George Washington;^[5][3] Merriam-Webster gives 1781.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Shorter Oxford notes that the noun has often been used disparagingly.^[8] The adjective, of capitalists or of capitalism, followed in 1817 in the OED;^[2] the Shorter Oxford dates it to the mid-19th century and Merriam-Webster to 1845.^[8][7] The noun later came to mean also a supporter of capitalism as an economic system,^[2][9] a word Barnhart dates to 1854, in Thackeray's The Newcomes;^[3] Etymonline says that the sense of an economic system favouring capitalists dates from 1872 and was at first a socialists' term of disparagement.^[5]

Timeline

• 1774 – a person who owns and invests capital.^[2]
• 1781 – Merriam-Webster's first date.^[7]
• 1791 – Etymonline's and Barnhart's first date.^[5][3]
• 1817 – adjective, of capitalists or capitalism.^[2]
• 1854 – the related noun capitalism.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who has capital, especially one who invests it in business for profit.
2. A supporter of capitalism.
3. Broadly, a wealthy person.

Adjective

1. Owning capital, or practising, supporting or characterized by capitalism: capitalist economies.

Word family

• capitalistically
• anticapitalist
• noncapitalist
• precapitalist
• procapitalist

Related words

• capital
• capitalism
• cattle
• chattel

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt