monopsony

Meaning

Noun

• A market situation in which there is only one buyer for a product.
• A buyer with disproportionate power.

Origin

• From Ancient Greek μόνος ("alone, solitary; singular, unique") + ὀψωνέω + , modelled after monopoly. is from ὄψον + ὠνέομαι. 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.