Problem with OED's First Use of "Capitalism"
Shapiro, Fred
fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Thu Mar 22 14:33:19 UTC 2012
I have just started to take a look at the March batch of OED revisions. I see a problem with the entry for "capitalism." The 1816 first use citation is clearly not referring to the economic sense of the word, but rather to some kind of Argentinian usage relating to Buenos Aires being the capital of the country. This is clearcut if one looks at the source periodical of the citation and at other early uses of the word.
Fred Shapiro
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