capital

¹cap·i·tal

noun \ˈka-pə-t^əl, ˈkap-t^əl\

Definition of CAPITAL

: the uppermost member of a column or pilaster crowning the shaft and taking the weight of the entablature — see column illustration

Examples of CAPITAL

1. The transition from Greece to Rome is marked, in a propylaeum space, by a huge Ionic column's base and capital, with a space between the broad part of the column below and the narrowing segment above. —Garry Wills, New York Review of Books, 31 May 2007
2. According to the scrapbooks of nineteenth-century tourists, there's room for a hundred men to stand on the capital of one of these columns. That was the kind of culturally insensitive thing tourists used to do. —P. J. O'Rourke, Atlantic, September 2002

Origin of CAPITAL

Middle English capitale, from Anglo-French capital, capitel, from Late Latin capitellum small head, top of column, diminutive of Latin capit-, caput head — more at head

First Known Use: 13th century

Other Architecture Terms

buttress, casita, cornice, fanlight, garret, lintel, parapet, pilaster, plinth