nepotism

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English

WOTD – 26 January 2008

Etymology

Borrowed from French népotisme, from Italian nepotismo, from Latin nepōs (“nephew”), a reference to the practice of popes appointing relatives (most often nephews) as cardinals during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈnɛp.ə.tɪ.zəm/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (AU):(file)

Noun

nepotism (countable and uncountable, plural nepotisms)

  1. The favoring of relatives or personal friends because of their relationship rather than because of their abilities.
    Antonyms: meritocracy, merit system
    Coordinate term: cronyism
    Nepotism can get you very far in the world if you've got the right connections.
    • 1989, Report on Business Magazine (volume 6, issues 1-6, page 100)
      Now retailers even demand deslotting or failure fees, a penalty for trial products that fail to meet their sales objectives. The struggle over display space heavily favors the incumbents and encourages what might be called brand nepotism.
    • 2006 September 27, “China airbrushes Chen”, in Financial Times‎[1]:
      Mr Chen - a member of the national politburo as well as the Shanghai boss - is accused of nepotism and corruption on a grand scale: protecting political allies, granting preferment to his family and looting Shanghai's pension fund.

Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French népotisme.

Noun

nepotism n (uncountable)

  1. nepotism
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