Make Your Point > Archived Issues > TYCOON
Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.
connect this word to others:
Maybe you've played one of those "Tycoon" video games or board games, the kind that involves building wealth and power, like Railroad Tycoon, Hotel Tycoon, Roller Coaster Tycoon, or Balloon Tycoon. Yup, that's a real one; check it out:
Balloons make people happy, and making people happy can make a fella rich. So naturally you want more balloons! ... But there's a string attached (actually many strings) ... because so does everyone else.
I love that game's name, Balloon Tycoon.
What'll be next? Curtain Merchant? Oil Rig Bigwig? Potable Notable? Gondolier Financier? Herbal Tea VIP? Fashion Dentistry Captain of Industry? Ice Skate Ma___te? (See if you can recall that last synonym of tycoon.)
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
make your point with...
"TYCOON"
"Tycoon" ultimately comes from Chinese words meaning "great" and "lord" (tai and kiun), and more directly from the Japanese word for "great lord or prince" (taikun). In English, "tycoon" dates back to 1857, and it means "a wealthy, powerful, important person, usually in the world of business."
For the full story on how "tycoon" entered English, check it this fantastic article from NPR. Here's the summary. Matthew Perry, the naval officer who established our trade relations with Japan in the 1850s, brought the word with him back to the US, where some people used it as a nickname for the great and powerful Abraham Lincoln.
Which is a bit funny when you consider how Lincoln was racist toward Japanese people.
So anyway, a tycoon is a rich, famous, powerful person, usually in business.
Pronunciation:
tie COON
Part of speech:
Noun, the countable kind: "he's a tycoon in the industry," "these tycoons run the nation."
Other forms:
The only other common one is the plural, "tycoons."
Rarely, we'll use "tycoon" as an adjective: "a tycoon family," "the tycoon press."
But I prefer the adjective "tycoonish."
And you can refer to tycoonish habits and behaviors as "tycoonery."
Now, a tycoon is usually a man--that's just reality, with its glass ceiling and all--but it can also be a woman. For extra clarity, you can refer to a female tycoon as a tycooness. For example, writers have used the word "tycooness" to describe women like Diane von Furstenberg, Martha Stewart, Jenny Craig, and, sigh, the Kardashians.
How to use it:
Thanks to its Japanese origin and its use as a nickname for Abe Lincoln, the word "tycoon" carries a worldly, historical flavor.
To use it, refer to some wealthy, powerful businessperson as a tycoon, or talk about tycoons in the plural: "three of the nation's tycoons donated these funds," "the gala attracted several media tycoons."
Often we specify tycoons by naming their nationality or their industry: French tycoons, Russian tycoons, shipping tycoons, real estate tycoons, confectionary tycoons, private equity tycoons.
Sometimes we add other adjectives, kind or unkind: "a revered tycoon," "a profit-hungry tycoon."
You'll see the phrase "business tycoon," but I recommend avoiding it; it's redundant. (Yes, technically speaking, a tycoon can be someone other than a businessperson--but in modern usage, tycoons are always businesspeople.)
And, you'll see "tycoon" placed as an identifier before someone's name: "tycoon Sir Philip Green" (BBC); "business tycoon Carlos Calleja" (LA Times). But I recommend avoiding that. It sounds stilted. Like "renowned author Dan Brown."
examples:
"But there was no luxury that he denied himself. In 2015, while vacationing in the South of France, he bought a yacht, the Serene, from a Russian vodka tycoon, for five hundred and fifty million dollars."
— Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, 16 October 2018
"It's open season on the wealthy. Resentment of the rich, lately a feature of the populist right, is sizzling on the populist left, too, with the premise that 'every billionaire is a policy mistake.' ... But people should think twice before seeking to flatten every tycoon. It may seem counterintuitive, but billionaires can be good for democracy, and a bulwark against tyranny."
— Fred Hiatt, The Washington Post, 3 February 2019
has this page helped you understand "tycoon"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "tycoon" without saying "wealthy businessperson" or "powerful capitalist."
try it out:
Fill in the blanks: "(Someone or something) appeared (at some time, or on some scene), tycoonish and overblown."
Example: "The tower appeared in 1979, tycoonish and overblown."
before you review, play:
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
Our game last month was "Quintessential TV Quotes!"
Each day, you matched the given vocabulary word to the quote that best illustrated it.
From the previous issue:
From Monty Python's Flying Circus, which quote below illustrates a fusillade?
Quote A:
Interviewer: Was there anything unusual about Dinsdale?
Woman: Certainly not! He was perfectly normal in every way! Except... inasmuch as he thought he was being followed by a giant hedgehog named Spiny Norman.
Quote B:
Mr. Praline: It's not pining, it's passed on! This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late parrot! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies! It's run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible! This is an ex-parrot!
Quote C:
Head Waiter: This is a vegetarian restaurant; we serve no meat of any kind. We're not only proud of that, we're smug about it.
Answer: In quote B, Mr. Praline lets loose a fusillade of exclamations.
Here's our game for May: "Distinctive Definitions."
This month, we’ll take a scenic slog through poetic and philosophical definitions. We’ll wade through similes, metaphors, personifications, hyperboles, grandiloquence, and cheesiness.
In each issue, consider a definition provided by a poet, a writer, or a philosopher, and see if you can name the definiendum: the thing or concept being defined. (Is it life, love, time, death, music, sleep, pain, laughter, bubblegum, stubbing your toe…???) For example, James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) said, "What men call ________ and the Gods call dross." He’s defining something—what is it? "Treasure."
Now, you can play this game in earnest, trying to think of what the poet actually wrote--or you can play it for laughs, supplying the silliest or most sarcastic answer you can muster.
To take the silliness to the next level, gather your friends or family, deal each person a hand of cards from your copy of Apples to Apples (great for kids) or Cards Against Humanity (not for kids!!), and enjoy the ensuing hilarity. (In these games, players take turns being the judge for each round, picking the funniest from everyone’s submissions.) "What men call stretch limos and the Gods call dross." "What men call Morgan Freeman's voice and the Gods call dross."
Try this one today:
George MacDonald (1824-1905) said, "___ is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husks."
review this word:
1. One opposite of TYCOON is
A. UNKNOWN.
B. INVESTOR.
C. INLANDER.
2. Site users flock each year by the tens of thousands to the tycoon's AMA ("Ask Me Anything"), where they ask him about his _____.
A. methods for inventing song lyrics
B. charitable efforts to curb poverty worldwide
C. most obscure poems and what they really mean
a final word:
Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each weekday morning by Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From Liesl's blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Maybe you've played one of those "Tycoon" video games or board games, the kind that involves building wealth and power, like Railroad Tycoon, Hotel Tycoon, Roller Coaster Tycoon, or Balloon Tycoon. Yup, that's a real one; check it out:
"TYCOON" "Tycoon" ultimately comes from Chinese words meaning "great" and "lord" (tai and kiun), and more directly from the Japanese word for "great lord or prince" (taikun). In English, "tycoon" dates back to 1857, and it means "a wealthy, powerful, important person, usually in the world of business."
"But there was no luxury that he denied himself. In 2015, while vacationing in the South of France, he bought a yacht, the Serene, from a Russian vodka tycoon, for five hundred and fifty million dollars."
Explain the meaning of "tycoon" without saying "wealthy businessperson" or "powerful capitalist."
Fill in the blanks: "(Someone or something) appeared (at some time, or on some scene), tycoonish and overblown."
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
1. One opposite of TYCOON is
|