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Re:Change My Mind: Density Increases Local but Decreases Glo... by allturtles on Wednesday May 03, 2023 @11:31AM (#35803604)
There's also upper-case letters, the big letter at the head of a passage, and adjective forms: capital punishment, a capital idea (archaic). This article has a nice discussion of the etymology of capital: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/financial-word... Usages that started out as living metaphors become 'fossilized' over time as independent meanings.

Don't languages in general have single words with multiple meanings? Is this a special feature of English?

Re:Change My Mind: Density Increases Local but Decreases Glo... by midoridensha on Wednesday May 03, 2023 @09:07PM (#35810013)
>Don't languages in general have single words with multiple meanings? Is this a special feature of English?

That's not what I'm referring to; it's the confusion over "capital" vs "capitol" (in addition to the double meaning of capital city vs capital-money).