zaibatsu means A large business conglomerate founded under the Empire of Japan, generally controlled by a single family or individual. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 86 out of 100.
zaibatsu is pronounced /zaɪˈbætsuː/.
Why “zaibatsu” is a great word
ZAIBATSU — [Noun] A large, family-controlled industrial and financial conglomerate that dominated the Japanese economy from the Meiji era until the end of World War II. Borrowed from Japanese 財閥 (zaibatsu), a compound of Middle Chinese 財 (d͡zoj, "wealth") and 閥 (bjot, "powerful family" or "clique"). First recorded in English use in the 1930s. Unlike the generic "conglomerate" or the specifically Korean "chaebol," the zaibatsu was capitalism rendered as a feudal house, its power both economic and genealogical. It was the Mitsubishi dragon on a warship's stack, the Sumitomo copper wiring a nascent empire, and the Mitsui department store selling modernity alongside silk—a consolidation of power so complete it became indistinguishable from the state, until history forcibly prised them apart.
noun
- A large business conglomerate founded under the Empire of Japan, generally controlled by a single family or individual.“He wondered briefly what it would be like, working all your life for one zaibatsu. Company housing, company hymn, company funeral.”
- Any large corporation.“Near-synonyms: megacorporation, supercorporation”