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Origin and history of capitalistic

capitalistic(adj.)

"of or pertaining to capital or capitalists," 1870; see capitalist + -ic.

Entries linking to capitalistic

1791, "man of money, one who has large property employed in business," from French capitaliste, a coinage of the Revolution and a term of reproach; see capital (n.2) + -ist; also compare capitalism.

Middle English -ik, -ick, word-forming element making adjectives, "having to do with, having the nature of, being, made of, caused by, similar to," from French -ique and directly from Latin -icus or from cognate Greek -ikos "in the manner of; pertaining to." From PIE adjective suffix *-(i)ko, which also yielded Slavic -isku, adjectival suffix indicating origin, the source of the -sky (Russian -skii) in many surnames. In chemistry, indicating a higher valence than names in -ous (first in benzoic, 1791).

In Middle English and after often spelled -ick, -ike, -ique. Variant forms in -ick (critick, ethick) were common in early Modern English and survived in English dictionaries into early 19c. This spelling was supported by Johnson but opposed by Webster, who prevailed.

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