Capital capitol.

I was clicking through photos I’ve taken over the last few months.  I found a couple from a visit to the Texas State Capitol in December, when we had visitors from out of town.     It’s a beautiful building – inside and out.   If you get an opportunity to visit, you can take a free guided tour, or this self-guided tour might be more your thing.

But first, a relevant grammar factoid for the day:

Capital vs. capitol

As a noun, capital refers to (1) a city that serves as a center of government, (2) wealth in the form of money or property, and (3) a capital letter. As an adjective, it means (1) principal, (2) involving financial assets, and (3) deserving of the death penalty. There are other definitions of capital, but these are the most commonly used ones.

Capitol has two very specific definitions (outside ancient Rome): (1) a U.S. state legislature building, and (2) the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. State capitols are located in the capital cities of U.S. states, and the Capitol is located in the capital city of the U.S. If you’re not talking about any of these capitol buildings, then the word you want is probably capital.

The Capitol building located in Washington, D.C. is spelled with a capital C, but state capitol buildings ordinarily don’t have the capital (which is not to say that some writers don’t capitalize them anyway).

And now, a few of the shots I took.  The nouth entrance:

IMG_7301

The dome, taken from the 4th level:IMG_7297

Several levels of the rotunda under the dome:IMG_7300

Have a great day!

2 thoughts on “Capital capitol.”

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