oligopoly

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English[edit]

WOTD – 13 June 2023

Etymology[edit]

PIE word
*h₃ligos

From oligo- (prefix meaning ‘few; several’) +‎ -poly (suffix meaning ‘pertaining to the number of sellers in a market’), by analogy with monopoly.[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

oligopoly (plural oligopolies)

  1. (economics) An economic condition in which a small number of sellers exert control over the market of a commodity.
    • 1866 October 1, Frederic Seebohm, “The Oxford Reformers of 1498. Chapter VII.”, in George Henry Lewes, editor, The Fortnightly Review, volume VI, number XXXIV, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, section 3 ([Thomas] More Drawn into Court. His Introduction to the “Utopia” (1516)), page 489:
      For the sheep are falling into few and powerful hands; and these, if they have not a monopoly, have at least an oligopoly, and can keep up the price.
    • [1895, J[oseph] H[irst] Lupton, “The Fyrste Boke of the Communycacion of Raphaell Hythlodaye Concernynge the Best State of a Commenwealthe”, in Thomas More, translated by Ralph Robynson, The Utopia of Sir Thomas More: In Latin from the Edition of March 1518, and in English from the First Edition of Ralph Robynson’s Translation in 1551 […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, footnote 2, page 55, column 2:
      [Thomas] More makes an antithesis between monopolium and oligopolium. We have ‘monopoly,’ but not ‘oligopoly’ (the sale by a few), and so cannot preserve the point of the sentence.
      Based on Late Latin oligopolium.]
    • 1907 April, G. Macloskie, “[General Literature.] The Gospel of Matthew in Esperanto.—La Evangelio Sankta Mateo lau Dro. Martin Luther Tradukita en la Lingvon Internacian Esperanto de W. B. Mielck kaj Fr. Stephan, kun Antauparolo de Lic. Dr. Alfred Jeremias Pastro de la Lutheran-preghejo kaj Docento de la Universitato en Leipzig. Leipzig, 1906. J. C. Hinrichs. pp. vii, 66. [book review]”, in The Princeton Theological Review, volume V, number 2, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 352:
      An embarrassing infelicity is the use of Russianised consonants, where for six of the consonants, an additional set is made by supersigns, representing the letter h. […] The specialist offices have it all to themselves; not a 'monopoly’, but an ‘oligopoly’, if we may coin the term.
    • 1967, John C. Narver, “The Competitive Effects of Conglomerate Mergers”, in Conglomerate Mergers and Market Competition (Publications of the Institute of Business and Economic Research, University of California), Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, published 1969, →OCLC, page 126:
      The major difference between pure and differentiated oligopoly cases is that in pure oligopolies less "shock" is needed to alter the organization of the market.
    • 2006 September, Edwin Black, “Power Struggle”, in Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 16:
      Although the power source had shifted from the king's near monopoly into an elite oligopoly, the masses were still afflicted when they sought wood fuel. But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries. By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tile makers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal. This only magnified the indispensable nature of the oligopolists.
    • 2016, Iwan Morgan, “Introduction: Hollywood and the Great Depression”, in Iwan Morgan, Philip John Davies, editors, Hollywood and the Great Depression: American Film, Politics and Society in the 1930s, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN:
      By the late 1930s, however, the major film companies had consolidated their status as vertically-integrated oligopolies that dominated movie production, distribution and exhibition.
    • 2022 October 28, Malcolm Harris, “Are We Living Under ‘Technofeudalism’?”, in New York Magazine‎[1]:
      Not only does the tech oligopoly seamlessly record our preferences, habits, and choices, it also uses that data to guide our future choices, rendering us increasingly useful to the tech companies and useless to ourselves.

Usage notes[edit]

Not to be confused with oligarchy, although oligarchs can also be oligopolists, as for example in petrostates.

Coordinate terms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “oligopoly, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “oligopoly, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading[edit]

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