The word "capital" is Latin for a head of cattle. A single ox was a "pecus," which also has interesting etymological implications.
BTW, I have no idea which Latin speaker or writer first used the term "capital," but it has been around awhile. Barkley Rosser ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ian Murray" <seamus2001 at home.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 10:28 PM Subject: Re: Capitalism's rate of decay ( Communication)
> > Brad defined that moment, paraphrasing Mandel, as taking shape in
> the
> > postwar world. Marx (and Althusser) said that the industrial
> revolution is
> > actually more like it--ie labor does not own or set in motion the
> means of
> > production (in a mundane sense) at this point. Open-ended skepticism
> is
> > probably to the point in this circumstance. (ie. an empirical
> argument about
> > when capital really became capital). Else, you're left with a kind
> of hollow
> > messiansism a la' Derrida--ie the end of capitalism is "to come" but
> you
> > don't know when, etc. Of course, there are also lots of practical
> > messianisms at play here also, but with huge swathes of India and
> Africa (to
> > take two non-random examples) yet un- or under-proletarianized, it's
> hard to
> > see how capital might have reached its zenith or to be significantly
> more at
> > risk as a system now than, say, 30 or 40 years ago.
> >
> > Christian
> ============
> Who was the first to use the term 'capital'?
>
> No googling.....:-)
>
> Ian
>
>