840: nepotism Mar 27, 2017

When people talk about 'nepotism' it denotes a particular sort of favoritism that allows for people to obtain and maintain power within families. This is a fairly new word, coming into English only in the mid 17th century. There wasn't as much of a need for this word when the most common form of governing in Europe was based on ruling families with power transferring from, usually, father to son. In the papacy, however, many roles were elected, but this system was also fraught with corruption. While power technically could not transfer from Pope to son, as the pope was not allowed to have children, this still happened. The Italian word, 'nepotismo', which gave us 'nepotism' comes from 'nipote' meaning ‘nephew’ as often the Pope would give privileges to his usually illegitimate sons whom were called his 'nephews' as a sort of euphemism.