type of lizard common in North Africa and Arabia, 1580s, from French scinc (Modern French scinque), from Latin scincus, from Greek skinkos, a name given to some kind of lizard common in Asia and North Africa, of unknown origin. Formerly thought to have medicinal qualities. The by-forms (scincoid, etc.) have the Latin spelling, from Modern Latin scincoides.
"of or pertaining to capital or capitalists," 1870; see capitalist + -ic.
fly of tropical Africa, 1849, probably via South African Dutch, from a Bantu language (compare Setswana tsetse, Luyia tsiisi "flies").
fox-like animal of Africa, 1790, from Arabic fenek, fanak "a name vaguely applied to various fur-bearing animals" [OED].
desert in central Asia, from Mongolian gobi "desert." Gobi Desert is thus a pleonasm (see Sahara).
city in Japan, from kyo + to, both meaning "capital." Founded 794 as Heionkyo "Capital of Calm and Peace," it also has been known as Miyako and Saikyo. Kyoto Protocol so called because it was initially adopted Dec. 11, 1997, in the Japanese city.
1854, "condition of having capital;" from capital (n.1) + -ism. The meaning "political/economic system which encourages capitalists" is recorded from 1872 and originally was used disparagingly by socialists. The meaning "concentration of capital in the hands of a few; the power or influence of large capital" is from 1877.
"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]
