Decapitalisation

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process or act of reducing the capital or financial assets of a company or entity ; the change from capitalization to lowercase letters in writing or typography ; the economic shift involving decreased investment or equity
2. A procedure involving the lowering of monetary capital in a business ; the stylistic or textual modification from uppercase to lowercase characters ; the financial phenomenon characterized by diminished capital resources
3. The action of diminishing owned funds or equity in an organization ; converting text from capital letters to small letters ; an economic trend indicating lessened investment or capital allocation

Etymology: "Decapitalisation" is a plain formation: the prefix "de-", meaning "down" or "reduce" in the sense of taking something away, joined to "capitalisation", the noun from "capitalise". In this context, "capitalisation" refers to a company's capital, the money and assets it has available to invest or distribute. Adding "de-" turns the idea around, so the word describes the process of reducing that capital, for example when a company returns money to shareholders or writes down its share capital. The spelling with "s" is the British form, and the American "decapitalization" is an equivalent alternative spelling. Both come from the same construction, so the word's history is simply that of its two parts, with "de-" added to a term that had already been established in financial English.

Synonyms: lowercasing, decapitalization

Antonyms: capitalization