monopsony

The story

1. Ancient Greek · derived fromμόνος“alone, solitary; singular, unique”
2. English todaymonopsony

From Ancient Greek μόνος (mónos, “alone, solitary; singular, unique”) + ὀψωνέω (opsōnéō, “to buy fish or victuals in general”) + -y, modelled after monopoly. ὀψωνέω is from ὄψον (ópson, “delicacies”) + ὠνέομαι (ōnéomai, “to buy, purchase”). The English word was coined by British classics scholar Bertrand Hallward (1901–2003), and popularized by British economist Joan Robinson (1903–1983) in her book The Economics of Imperfect Competition (1933): see the quotation.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 1930s A market situation in which there is only one buyer for a product.