Oligopsony
Ah-luh-GAHP-suh-nee
Definition: A market situation in
which each of a few buyers exerts a disproportionate influence on the market
You're probably familiar with the
word monopoly, but you may not recognize its conceptual and linguistic
relative, the much rarer oligopsony. Both monopoly and oligopsony are
ultimately from Greek, although monopoly passed through Latin before being
adopted into English. Monopoly comes from the Greek prefix mono-, which means
"one," and pōlein, "to sell." Oligopsony derives from the
combining form olig-, meaning "few," and the Greek noun
opsōnia—"the purchase of victuals"—which is ultimately from the
combination of opson, "food," and ōneisthai, "to buy." It
makes sense, then, that oligopsony refers to a buyer's market in which the
seller is subjected to the potential demands of a limited pool of buyers.
Another related word is monopsony, used for a more extreme oligopsony in which there
is only a single buyer.
Baleful
BAIL-ful
Definition 1: deadly or
pernicious in influence 2: foreboding or threatening evil
The bale of baleful comes from
Old English bealu ("evil"), and the bane of the similar-looking
baneful comes from Old English bana ("slayer" or
"murderer"). Baleful and baneful are alike in meaning as well as
appearance, and they are sometimes used in quite similar contexts—but they usually
differ in emphasis. Baleful typically describes what threatens or portends evil
(e.g., "a baleful look," "baleful predictions"). Baneful
applies typically to what causes evil or destruction (e.g., "a baneful
secret," "the baneful bite of the serpent"). Both words are used
to modify terms like influence, effect, and result, and in such uses there is
little that distinguishes the