Tuesday, January 03, 2017

Today's words

oligopsony /ah-luh-GAHP-suh-nee/ - a market situation in which each of a few buyers exerts a disproportionate influence on the market
Occasionally a new word teaches you another one, even when it isn't explained distinctly. I was, of course, familiar with the terms "monopoly" and "oligarchy." The WOTD write-up clarified the relationship between the "-poly" and "-psony" suffixes by describing the "monopsony," so naturally I confirmed the existence of "oligopoly," too.
zeitgeist /TSYTE-gyste/ - (often capitalized Zeitgeist) the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era
I was sure I'd blogged about this word before. Maybe I'd just encountered it but recognized it from context and previous exposure, so didn't write on it. The only real reasons I've included it here are 1) I thought I'd posted about it previously, 2) it's uncommon enough that it might be of value for the reader (whoever you are; won't you say "hi" in a comment if you haven't let me know?), and 3) my mind refuses to be familiar enough with German to pronounce the leading consonant correctly.

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