nepotism

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

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ˈnɛp.ə.tɪ.zəm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

nepotism (countable and uncountable, plural nepotisms)

1. The favoring of relatives (most strictly) or also personal friends (more broadly) because of their relationship rather than because of their abilities.

   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.

Antonyms

• meritocracy

Coordinate terms

• cronyism (broadly synonymous)

Derived terms

• nepotism baby

Related terms

• nepotistic
• nepotistical

Translations

favoring of relatives or personal friends

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: шуробаджанащина (bg) f (šurobadžanaština)
• Catalan: nepotisme m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 偏袒 (zh) (piāntǎn), 裙帶關係／裙带关系 (qúndài guānxì), 任人唯親／任人唯亲 (zh) (rènrénwéiqīn)

• Czech: nepotismus m, nepotizmus m
• Danish: nepotisme (da) c
• Dutch: nepotisme (nl) n, vriendjespolitiek (nl)
• Esperanto: nepotismo (eo)
• Estonian: onupojapoliitika, nepotism (et)
• Finnish: nepotismi (fi)
• French: népotisme (fr) m, copinage (fr) m
• Galician: nepotismo m
• Georgian: ნეპოტიზმი (ka) (neṗoṭizmi)
• German: Nepotismus (de) m, Vetternwirtschaft (de) f
• Greek: οικογενειοκρατία (el) f (oikogeneiokratía)
• Hebrew: נֶפּוֹטִיזְם‎ (he) m (nepotizm)
• Hindi: भाई-भतीजावाद (bhāī-bhatījāvād)
• Hungarian: nepotizmus (hu)
• Icelandic: frændhygli f
• Ido: nepotismo (io)
• Indonesian: nepotisme (id)
• Irish: finíochas m
• Italian: nepotismo (it) m
• Japanese: 縁者贔屓 (enjabiiki)
• Khmer: ញាតិមិត្តនិយម (ñiət mɨt niyum)
• Korean: 족벌주의 (jokbeoljuui)
• Mandinka: baadinfaasaa
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: nepotyzm (pl) m
• Portuguese: nepotismo (pt) m
• Romanian: nepotism (ro) n
• Russian: непоти́зм (ru) m (nepotízm), кумовство́ (ru) n (kumovstvó)
• Spanish: nepotismo (es) m
• Swedish: nepotism (sv) c, svågerpolitik c
• Thai: คติเห็นแก่ญาติ
• Turkish: kayırmacılık, adam kayırma (tr), kohumbazlık (tr), dayıcılık, torpil (tr)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: neigarwch m, neiedd (cy) m

Further reading

• nepotism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• pimentos

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French népotisme.

Noun

nepotism n (uncountable)

1. nepotism

Related terms

• nepot
• nepoată
• nepoțel
• nepoțică
• nepoție

Swedish

Noun

nepotism c

1. nepotism

   Synonyms: svågerpolitik, vänskapskorruption

Declension

Declension of nepotism
	Uncountable
	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	nepotism	nepotismen	—	—
Genitive	nepotisms	nepotismens	—	—

References

• nepotism in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• nepotism in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• nepotism in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)