nepotism

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 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:

     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.

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

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Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French népotisme.

Noun

nepotism n (uncountable)

1. nepotism

Related terms

• nepot
• nepoată
• nepoțel
• nepoțică
• nepoție

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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)