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Lexicon.

capitalism

noun [ˈkæpɪtəˌlɪzəm]
pronunciation CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, open source

Capitalism is an economic system of mostly private ownership of capital, where production and trade follow market prices and profit.

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Definitions

  1. In economics: a system in which capital, land and factories are mainly private property, and production and trade follow market prices and the owners' profit.
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  2. In history: the period and social order tied to that system, from nineteenth century industrialisation through today's market economies.
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  3. As an attitude or ideology: praise of private property, free markets and entrepreneurship as the basis of social order.
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Examples

Usage

English speakers use capitalism in more than one way, so context matters. Economists apply it to private ownership of capital and market exchange. Historians apply it to an era and a social order built around that system. In ordinary debate it often stands for an attitude that praises private property, free markets and entrepreneurship. Mixing a description of the system with a moral judgement is easy, so precise writing usually states which sense is intended.

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Webster (1913) does not give a separate lemma for capitalism. It does define Capitalist as a person who has capital invested, or seeking to invest, in business, especially one who owns a large amount of capital employed in business enterprises. Capital in the economic sense is money, property or stock employed in trade or manufactures, as distinct from income or interest. English capitalism formed later from the same word family as capitalist and capitalize.

source Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open source

Polish dictionaries of the same period already treated the cognate as a settled term. Michał Arct's dictionary of foreign words (1921) glosses Kapitalizm as the domination of capital and as a capitalist economy, and lists Kapitalista as a holder of capital who lives on interest, with the adjective kapitalistyczny for an individualist economy. The Polish entry thus stresses the power of money and private enterprise rather than a full constitutional theory.

source Editorial team; facts: M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921, open source

The noun often appears with market, state, wild and crony, and people speak of the rise of capitalism or a critique of capitalism. A supporter or owner of capital is a capitalist, and the matching adjective is capitalistic or capitalist. Related forms include capitalize, capitalization, capital and anticapitalism. Capitalism is broader than free trade: free trade is one policy within market economies, while capitalism names private ownership and profit seeking as a whole. Journalists often set capitalism versus socialism, contrasting market ownership with stronger state control over the economy.

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Word forms

Regular English noun, usually uncountable; the plural capitalisms is rare and refers to different kinds or national versions of the system.

word forms

przypadek forma
singular capitalism
plural capitalisms

Word forms: Editorial team

Collocations

Synonyms · Antonyms

Antonyms communism, socialism
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Etymology

Skeat derives English capital in the sense of wealth and a money stock from French capital, meaning wealth and a person's principal property, and that from late Latin capitale, the neuter of the adjective capitalis, chief, from Latin caput, head. Among the derivatives Skeat lists capital-ist and capital-ise. Webster (1913) describes capitalist as a person who has capital to invest, and capitalize as turning something into capital; it has no separate entry for capitalism. The English noun capitalism was formed later from that same family. Polish Kapitalizm, recorded by Arct in 1921 as the domination of capital and a capitalist economy, is the cognate of the English term.
source W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910, open source
also Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open source
also M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921, open source

Related words

Related entries

Questions and answers

What does capitalism mean?

It is an economic system in which factories, land and investment money belong mainly to private owners, and production and trade follow the market and profit. The same word also names the historical era and the ideology built on those principles.

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Where does the word capitalism come from?

The root goes back to Latin caput, head, through capitalis and later capital in the sense of wealth. From that family English formed capitalist and capitalize; capitalism itself is a later formation. Skeat (1910) records capital-ist and capital-ise; Webster (1913) has those words but not a separate lemma capitalism.

source W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910, open source

How is capitalism different from communism?

Under capitalism the means of production are mostly private and the market sets prices. Under communism the programme is to abolish private ownership of those means and to share the fruits of labour in common. The two words therefore name opposite visions of ownership and the division of goods.

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