capitale

Forms

capitale m or f by sense (plural capitali)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin capitālis (“of the head; chief; deadly”), formed from caput (“head”) with the suffix -ālis.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} In Latin it already meant both “concerning the head”, hence “carrying the death penalty”, and “chief, essential”.^[2][3][6]

The nouns grew out of the adjective.^[3][4] The masculine, a sum of money, is according to the DEI a Tuscan and northern word, with the Old Venetian form cavedal.^[7] The feminine, the chief city of a state, followed the model of French capitale, from ville capitale, according to Nocentini.^[3]

Popular outcomes of the Latin word live on elsewhere: Old French chatel (“possessions, movable goods”), cheptel (“livestock lease”), Old Occitan capdal, Catalan cabdal and the adjectives Spanish caudal (“abundant”) and Portuguese caudal.^[3][8][9] The Latin noun for “head” goes back to Proto-Italic *kaput and is cognate with Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌱𐌹𐌸 (haubiþ), Old English hēafod and German Haupt.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is first recorded in a Florentine document of 1211, for the principal of a loan as against its interest: the debtor promised to pay back prode e capitale, interest and principal.^[2][11][4] The adjective appears in 1268 in Andrea da Grosseto, for what brings or is punished by death.^[11][3]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio (1353) has both pena capitale, the death penalty, and nemico capitale, a mortal enemy.^[2] The Church's peccati or vizi capitali, the deadly sins from which the others spring, are already in Old Italian.^[11] In palaeography scrittura capitale is the capital script of Latin inscriptions, so called because in the Middle Ages it was kept for headings.^[12][13]

The feminine noun for the capital city appears in the 16th century: Nocentini dates it to 1567, and DELI quotes Tasso (1579–1586).^[3][2] Its derivatives came through French: capitalista (1744), capitalistico (1875), capitalismo (1889) and capitalizzare (1829).^[2][3] With Marxism il capitale also became the owners of the means of production as a class, set against labour.^[14]

The commercial word travelled north: German Kapital was first borrowed as cavedal (1527), and Dutch kapitaal also comes from Italian.^[15][1] Meyer-Lübke and the DEI see French capital “principal sum” as a loan from Italian too.^[9][7] In the dialects the popular word survives as a name for the pillow or bolster, as in Old Roman capitale (dello lietto) (about 1358).^[8][9]

Timeline

• 1211 – A Florentine document has the noun for the principal of a loan.^[2][11][15]
• 1268 – Andrea da Grosseto uses the adjective “deadly”.^[11][3]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses pena capitale and nemico capitale.^[2]
• About 1358 – Old Roman capitale means a pillow.^[8]
• 1527 – German cavedal, later Kapital, is recorded.^[15]
• 1567 – The feminine noun “capital city” is recorded.^[3]
• 1744 – Capitalista is recorded.^[2]
• 1829 – Capitalizzare is recorded.^[2]
• 1889 – Capitalismo is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. capital: involving the loss of life, punishable by death: pena capitale, the death penalty.^[16][12][13]
2. By extension, mortal, implacable: odio capitale.^[16][17][13]
3. Chief, fundamental, decisive: una scelta di capitale importanza.^[16][12][14]
4. Very serious, grave: uno sbaglio capitale.^[16][12]
5. (theology) In peccati capitali and vizi capitali: the deadly sins, from which the others derive.^[13][17][12]
6. (palaeography) In scrittura capitale, the capital script of Latin inscriptions and ancient manuscripts;^[12][17][13] lettera capitale, a capital letter.^[12][17][13]
7. (economics) In bene capitale, a capital good, used to produce consumer goods.^[17][6]

Noun, feminine

1. A capital city, the city where the head of state and the government sit: Lisbona è la capitale del Portogallo.^[13][12][4]
2. By extension, the chief centre of an activity: la capitale del cinema.^[13]

Noun, masculine

1. (finance) The principal: a sum of money considered apart from the interest it yields.^[16][14]
2. Capital: the assets and funds a person or firm holds, or any wealth used to produce income or new goods.^[16][14][6]
3. By extension, a large sum of money: Quella barca costa un capitale.^[16][14]
4. (figurative) A wealth of something: un capitale di esperienza.^[16]
5. The owners of the means of production as a social class: il capitale e il lavoro.^[14]

Word family

• capitalismo
• capitalista
• capitalistico
• capitalizzare
• capitalizzazione
• capitalmente

Related words

• capo
• Latin caput
• French capital
• German Kapital

Usage notes

The gender of the noun tells the senses apart: la capitale is the city, il capitale the money.^[1][13][16] In finance capitale is opposed to the interest (interessi) it produces.^[14][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 734
8. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 10, 1724
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
17. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli