capitalist

From French capitaliste; equivalent to capital +‎ -ist. Derived from Proto-Indo-European *káput (“head”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkæp.ɪ.tə.lɪst/

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capitalist (comparative more capitalist, superlative most capitalist)

1. Of, or pertaining to, capitalism.

   capitalist economy

   capitalist countries

   • 2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 2012-02-13, page 162:

     He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. With this biological framework in place, Corning endeavors to show that the capitalist system as currently practiced in the United States and elsewhere is manifestly unfair.

   • 2019 August 14, Matthew Desmond, “In order to understand the brutality of American capitalism, you have to start on the plantation”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     This is a capitalist society. It’s a fatalistic mantra that seems to get repeated to anyone who questions why America can’t be more fair or equal. But around the world, there are many types of capitalist societies, ranging from liberating to exploitative, protective to abusive, democratic to unregulated.

2. Supporting or endorsing capitalism.
   • 2017 January 30, CNN Town Hall, spoken by Nancy Pelosi, via CNN:

     Well, I thank you for your question, but I have to say we're capitalist—and that is just the way it is. However, we do think that capitalism is not necessarily meeting the needs with the income inequality that we have in our country.

3. (nonstandard) American.

• capitalistic

capitalist (plural capitalists)

1. The owner of a considerable amount of capital; a wealthy person.
   • 1818, Edward Cooke, “Thought on the Expedency ^[sic] of Repealing the Usury Laws”, in The Pamphleteer, volume 13, number 25:

     Very little of capital acquired in commerce is directed towards agriculture, save where a wealthy capitalist purchases lands for his own use; but it is seldom, if ever, applied to the improvement of the country, in the hands of the original landholders.

   • 1824, John Rooke, An Inquiry into the Principles of National Wealth, page 90:

     Were a wealthy English capitalist to dispose of the property that belongs to him in Êngland, which has been realised by former industry, and take it to Van Diemen's Land, where he could have land for nothing, he would probably discover that he had made no very judicious change.

   • 1854-1855, William Thackeray, “XLVIII. In which Benedick is a Married Man”, in The Newcomes:

     It has been said that I kept a small account with Hobson Brothers, to whose bank I went, and entered the parlour with that trepidation which most poor men feel on presenting themselves before City magnates and capitalists.

   • 1882, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineer's Monthly Journal, volume 16, page 337:

     The capitalist, often the mere inheritor of wealth, the lucky finder or purchaser of a mine, or a successful gambler in the cereals necessary to life, human and animal, can not boast of his superior power

   • 2000, John W. De Forest, Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secessions to Loyalty:

     He paid out, and received on account of the Government, thousands of dollars daily; and the mere handling of such considerable sums made him feel as if he were a great capitalist.

2. Someone whose wealth (capital) is invested in business ventures in order to return a profit.

   Hyponyms: captain of industry, magnate, robber baron, tycoon

   Near-synonyms: businessman, financier, industrialist

   • 1922 [1825], Thomas Hodgskin with G. D. H. Cole, Labour Defended against the Claims of Capital, published 1828, page 31:

     The labourers do only receive, and ever have only received, as much as will subsist them, the landlords receive the surplus produce of the more fertile soils, and all the rest of the whole produce of labour in this and in every country goes to the capitalist under the name of profit for the use of his capital.

   • 1906 [1867], Karl Marx, chapter X, in Edward Aveling, Samuel Moore, transl., edited by Friedrich Engels, Capital, volume 1, page 257:

     As capitalist, he is only capital personified. His soul is the soul of capital. But capital has one single life impulse, the tendency to create value and surplus-value, to make its constant factor, the means of production, absorb the greatest possible amount of surplus labour.

   • 1907 [1880], Friedrich Engels, chapter III, in Edward Aveling, transl., Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, page 55:

     The separation was made complete between the means of production concentrated in the hands of the capitalists, on the one side, and the producers, possessing nothing but their labor-power, on the other.

   • 1871, John Stephen Wright, Wright's Proposition to a Chicago Railway Capitalist, page 40:

     That is all that is asked; and no capitalist in New England can make one quarter on capital in ordinary investments, on what can be made upon Chicago real estate.

   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎^[3]:

     “I have tried, as I hinted, to enlist the co-operation of other capitalists, but experience has taught me that any appeal is futile that does not impinge directly upon cupidity. […]”

   • 2021 January 13, Christian Wolmar, “Read all about London's Cathedrals of Steam”, in RAIL, issue 922, page 62:

     Every rail company worth its salt wanted to connect with London. Interestingly, it was largely that way around - provincial entrepreneurs wanting to connect with the capital, rather than London capitalists seeking to spread outwards.

3. A person who is a supporter of capitalism.

   Synonyms: economic liberal, free enterpriser, liberal

   • 2007 December 20, Clive Thompson, “Clive Thompson on How the Next Victim of Climate Change Will Be Our Minds”, in Wired Magazine‎^[4], number 16.01, archived from the original on 2013-06-30:

     In a world of cheap airfares, laptops, and the Internet, we proudly regard mobility as a sign of how advanced we are. Hey, we're nomadic hipster capitalists!

• “capitalist”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “capitalist”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “capitalist”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• capitalism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from French capitaliste.

• IPA^(key): /ka.pi.taˈlist/

capitalist m (plural capitaliști, feminine equivalent capitalistă)

1. capitalist

capitalist m or n (feminine singular capitalistă, masculine plural capitaliști, feminine and neuter plural capitaliste)

1. capitalist

• capitalism