| 词组 | tycoon |
| 释义 | tycoon This appealing word is derived from the Japanese taikun, another name for a shogun, a military governor. Its use in English appears to have begun in the world of 19th-century American politics, where it referred to a powerful leader (Abraham Lincoln in particular). The now familiar use of tycoon to mean "a business magnate" dates from the 1920s, when it appeared in Time magazine. Time claims credit for it, and the earliest citation for it supports that claim: • Fred W. Fitch, 56, rich hair-tonic tycoon —Time, 14 June 1926 (OED Supplement) Other early citations are also from Time. The figurative tycoon has been labeled "colloquial" and "informal" by dictionaries and usage commentators in the past, but those labels are no longer valid, unless they are taken to mean that it is a word more at home in general writing than in scholarly discourse. It is a standard word that occurs commonly in writing of no special informality: • These are some aspects of a situation that has been disturbing not only the book trade but also magazine publishers and newspaper tycoons —Malcolm Cowley, New Republic, 22 Nov. 1954 • ... business leaders today bear little resemblance to the buccaneers and tycoons of fifty years ago —Daniel Bell, Commentary, April 1948 Its association with the era of the '20s and '30s remains strong, so that its use to describe a current figure often implies—with a touch of irony, perhaps—comparison with the vastly wealthy and powerful businessmen of that earlier time: • Lunch-time there is inclined to be a Big Business affair, but we just ignored the tycoons and concentrated on very nice veal escalopes —Alison Mitchell, Scottish Field, October 1973 • It is now the Pacific Union Club, inhabited by latter-day tycoons —Horace Sutton, Saturday Rev., 20 Jan. 1980 |
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