the word comes from "capital", meaning something of value that is used to make things. this can be money ("financial capital") or any other goods that can be traded. the word "capital" originally comes from the latin word "caput", meaning "head." it was used to mean how many "head" of cattle a rich person owned, in days long ago when cattle were used as money. in fact, the words "capital" and "cattle" both come from "caput".