英和和英

語源

From Latin monopōlium, from Ancient Greek μονοπώλιον (monopṓlion, “a right of exclusive sale”), from μόνος (mónos, “sole”) + πωλέω (pōléō, “to barter, sell”). By surface analysis, mono- +‎ -poly.

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: mənŏp'əlē, IPA: /məˈnɒpəli/
• (General American, dialects of Canada) enPR: mənä'pəlē, IPA: /məˈnɑpəli/
• (Canada, dialects of the 米国発音) enPR: mənŏp'əlē, IPA: /məˈnɒpəli/
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA: /məˈnɔpəli/, /məˈnɒpəli/
• (Indic) IPA: /mono.poli/, /mɵˈnɔpɵli/
• 韻: -ɒpəli

名詞

monopoly (plural monopolies)

1. A situation, by legal privilege or other agreement, in which solely one party (company, cartel etc.) exclusively provides a particular product or service, dominating that market and generally exerting powerful control over it.

   Antonyms: monopsony, polypoly

   Coordinate terms: duopoly, triopoly, quadropoly, quintopoly, oligopoly

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     The sale of the leaves and roots was a Government monopoly, and from it the Kings of Kôr derived a large proportion of their private revenue.

   • 1962, G. B. Endacott, A. Hinton, “Public Works and Transport”, in Fragrant Harbour: A Short History of Hong Kong‎, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, published 1977, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 122:

     In 1918 a Chinese company was given a monopoly to run a service between Victoria and the districts of Mong Kok and Sham Shui Po. Five years later this monopoly was transferred to the Hong Kong and Yaumati Ferry Company, together with the right to run a service to Yau Ma Tei.

   • 2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist‎, volume 408, number 8848, archived from the original on 12 February 2014:

     It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.

   • 2014 June 1, “Net Neutrality”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 1, episode 5, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:

     Exactly! You can’t reduce the competition when nobody is competing! You could not be describing a monopoly more clearly if you were wearing a metal top hat while driving a metal car after winning second prize in a beauty contest!

   • 2018 February 10, “Spain’s centrist Ciudadanos are on the march”, in The Economist‎, London: Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 May 2018:

     Ciudadanos is keen on fighting monopolies and on vigorous Scandinavian-style labour reforms to help the unemployed retrain and find jobs.

   • 2025, Karen Hao, Empire of AI, New York City: Penguin Press, →ISBN:

     On building companies, [Sam] Altman frequently channeled [Peter] Thiel’s “monopoly” strategy, the belief that all founders should “aim for monopoly” to create a successful business.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:monopoly.
2. An exclusive control over the trade or production of a commodity or service through exclusive possession.

   A land monopoly renders its holder(s) nearly almighty in an agricultural society.

   • 1917 [1916], Владимир Ленин [Vladimir Lenin], Империализм, как высшая стадия капитализма (В. И. Ленин: Полное собрание сочинений; 27), published 1969, page 421; English translation from Yuri Sdobnikov, transl., Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (V. I. Lenin: Collected Works; 22), translation of original in Russian, 1964, page 299:

     The monopoly [literally, “monopolistic possession”] of the most important sources of raw materials has enormously increased the power of big capital, and has sharpened the antagonism between cartelised and non-cartelised industry.

     [original: Монополисти́ческое облада́ние важне́йшими исто́чниками сыры́х материа́лов стра́шно увели́чило власть кру́пного капита́ла и обостри́ло противоре́чие ме́жду картелли́рованной и некартелли́рованной промы́шленностью.]

     Monopolistíčeskoje obladánije važnéjšimi istóčnikami syrýx materiálov strášno uvelíčilo vlastʹ krúpnovo kapitála i obostrílo protivoréčije méždu kartellírovannoj i nekartellírovannoj promýšlennostʹju.

   • 2020 January 31, Kay Tye, Twitter‎ (tweet), archived from the original on 1 February 2020, deleted:

     My great grandfather had the monopoly of eggs in all of China and my grandmother was super rich living in a mansion when the cultural revolution happened and communism took everything away.

3. The privilege granting the exclusive right to exert such control.

   Granting monopolies in concession constitutes a market-conform alternative to taxation for the state, while the crown sometimes bestowed a monopoly as an outrageous gift.

4. (metonymic) The market thus controlled.
5. (metonymic) The holder (person, company or other) of such market domination in one of the above manners.

   Synonym: monopolist

派生語

関連する語

Further reading

• “monopoly”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “monopoly”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• Raymond Williams (1983), “Monopoly”, in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, revised American edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1985, →ISBN, page 209.