Recipient of nepotism = ?

August 14, 2008 2:19 PM

What is the term applied to someone who benefits from nepotism? I'm looking for an actual, dictionary term.
posted by blithely to Writing & Language (13 answers total)

Well, technically, "nephew." There's "crony" for someone who isn't necessarily a relative. Aside from that, I don't believe there's a real term, though if you've got an overly educated audience you could try using cardinal-nephew.
posted by darksasami at 2:40 PM on August 14, 2008

The term 'nepotee' is sometimes used, although it's not a legitimate word. And seconding 'nephew', although you'd have to be extremely pedantic to actually use the word in any real-world context.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 2:41 PM on August 14, 2008

Nephew? (This is not entirely a joke.)
I've never encountered an actual term for this. I wonder if there really is one. To me, the question almost assumes that the beneficiary was complicit and so there needs to be a special word for it beyond the basic family relationship that brings up the situation. And if they were complicity, then you can just move up to something more generalized like favoritism, conspiracy, alliance, etc. as appropriate.
posted by Su at 2:43 PM on August 14, 2008

Response by poster: You guys have been very helpful, thank you!
posted by blithely at 3:00 PM on August 14, 2008

Nepotist is the person favours his nephews. Nepote is the recipient, but it's pretty obscure. To me, crony may work, donee as in Nepotist's donee/ legee are probably the best.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 3:00 PM on August 14, 2008

Methinks cardinal-nephew is pretty cool.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 3:02 PM on August 14, 2008

oops. legatee.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 3:05 PM on August 14, 2008

Er, to be a legatee, I believe the person handing out the benefits has to be dead.
posted by darksasami at 3:09 PM on August 14, 2008

Nepotism is often described in terms of patron/client relationships. So nepotism is the process, with the patron and the client as the actors (rather than with the nepoter and nepotee as actors, as one might grammatically assume).
posted by Forktine at 3:10 PM on August 14, 2008

Beneficiary?
posted by Leon at 4:10 PM on August 14, 2008

I'm not certain that nepotist is wrong. Keep in mind that nepotism can be a system practiced in self-interest, as in the Chicago Machine politicians who supported Richard M. Daley for mayor long after his father was dead and gone.

Adam Bellow, in In Defense of Nepotism, seems to use the word beneficiary. He claims that the original word, which describes a practice traditionally deemed within the discretion of the Pope, comes from the Italian nepote which is not a cognate of "nephew" so much as "relative".
posted by dhartung at 10:35 PM on August 14, 2008

"Nepote" is awfully appealing, but the OED doesn't list the desired meaning for it, giving only "nephew" and "grandson." I think "nephew" and "nepote" are both cute ways of getting where you're going, but there doesn't seem to a word that actually, squarely fits.
posted by grobstein at 8:47 AM on August 16, 2008

(And "nepotist" describes the benefactor rather than the beneficiary.)
posted by grobstein at 8:48 AM on August 16, 2008