Forms: 3 capitale, 5 capital, 6–7 capitell, -el, (7 capitull, -ol), 7– capital. [Answers to L. capitell-um in same sense (dim. of caput head, or rather of its dim. capitulum), and its representatives, It. capitello, OF. capitel, chapitel, now chapiteau; but from the beginning tending to confusion with the adj. CAPITAL, to which it is now assimilated. Italian influence favored capitel(l) in the 17th c.]
1. The head or top of a column or pillar.
c. 1290. Land Cokaygne, 69, in E. E. P. (1862), 158. Þe pilers … Wiþ harlas, and capitale Of grene jaspe and rede corale.
1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, IV. xxxvi. (1483), 83. The legges ben as it were pylers … the knees ben the capitals and the feete the bases.
1563. Shute, Archit., B j b. In the Capitel, was set Voluta … for an ornature and garnishment of the Capitell.
1604. Drayton, Owle, 629. From the Base, up to the Capitell.
1660. Bloome, Archit., E a. Corinthian Capitall.
1670. Lassels, Voy. Italy, II. 157. Four great Pillars of Jasper polished, adorned with Capitels and bases of brass gilt.
1747. Scheme Equip. Men of War, 60. On the Capitol, Victory, Trade, Peace and Plenty might be expressed in their proper Attitudes.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven. (1874), I. vii. 71. A capital is only the cornice of a column.
2. The head or cap of a chimney, crucible, etc.
1715. Desaguliers, Fires Impr., 79. Such a Capital will wholly hinder the Wind from going into the Chimney.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Capital of a lanthorn … Capital of a mill.
1800. Henry, Epit. Chem. (1808), 148. An alembic, covered with its capital.
¶ 3. A chapter of a book. (for CAPITLE.)
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, xxxvii. Holy St. Bernard in the rule of our … profession, hath said, in the fifty-ninth capital, [etc.].
Capital sb.2: see B. under the adj.
