Chaebol

Chaebol is a noun that refers to a large family-owned business conglomerate. Coming from the Korean words chae (CHAY) which means ‘money,’ and bol (BALL) which means ‘faction,’ our word of the day has been with us since the 1970s. Here’s an example of it in use: I had no idea the local comedy club scene was a chaebol. It didn’t take long to learn that seven of the ten clubs were owned by one man, and the other three were owned by his brothers.