capitalist (n.)

十七世纪十年代，指“个人财富”，源自中世纪拉丁语 capitale “存货、财产”，为拉丁语中中性词 capitalis（capital）的名词用法（见 capital（形容词））。十七世纪四十年代指“用于特定企业的财富”，之后在政治经济学上更广泛地指“可用于进一步生产的工业产值”（1793）。

[The term capital] made its first appearance in medieval Latin as an adjective capitalis (from caput, head) modifying the word pars, to designate the principal sum of a money loan. The principal part of a loan was contrasted with the "usury"—later called interest—the payment made to the lender in addition to the return of the sum lent. This usage, unknown to classical Latin, had become common by the thirteenth century and possibly had begun as early as 1100 A.D., in the first chartered towns of Europe. [Frank A. Fetter, "Reformulation of the Concepts of Capital and Income in Economics and Accounting," 1937, in "Capital, Interest, & Rent," 1977]

[这个术语 capital ]最初作为中世纪拉丁语中的一个形容词而首次出现，来自 caput（头），用于修饰 pars，用以指代一笔货币贷款的本金部分。 贷款的本金部分与“高利贷”即付给贷款人的利息相对应。 这种用法在古典拉丁文中是无法理解的，但在十三世纪已经很常见，并且可能早在11世纪早期欧洲的第一批特许城镇中就已经开始了。 [弗兰克·费特（Frank A. Fetter），“经济学和会计中关于资本和收入概念的再制定”，1937，收录于“资本，利息和地租”，1977年]

此外，参见 cattle，并比较 fee 和 pecuniary 的意义演变。中古英语中有 chief money “主要基金”（14世纪中期）。在古典拉丁文中，形容词的名词用法意味着“重罪”。

1854年，“拥有资本的状态”； 来自 capital（n.1）+ -ism。 “鼓励资本家的政治/经济体系”一词记录于1872年，最初被社会主义者贬低使用。 “少数人手中的资本集中; 大资本的权力或影响”一词来自1877年。

"Capital" may be most briefly described as wealth producing more wealth; and "capitalism" as the system directing that process. This latter term came into general use during the second half of the 19th century as a word chiefly signifying the world-wide modern system of organizing production and trade by private enterprise free to seek profit and fortune by employing for wages the mass of human labour. There is no satisfactory definition of the term, though nothing is more evident than the thing. [J.L. Garvin, "Capitalism" in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1929] 

“资本”可以最简要地描述为生产更多财富; “资本主义”是指指导这一过程的系统。这个后者的术语在19世纪下半叶开始普遍使用，主要是指通过私人企业自由寻求利润和财富，通过雇用大量人力劳动力来组织生产和贸易的全球现代系统。虽然没有什么比这个更明显的事情，但这个术语没有令人满意的定义。[J.L. Garvin，“资本主义”于 Encyclopaedia Britannica，1929年]