Today starts our Japanese week:
Tycoon originally referred to a Japanese lord and was first used in English in the 1850s. A diary entry states that the right word for the ruler of Japan is tycoon. In 1858 The Times reports that a treaty has achieved “perpetual peace and friendship between Her British Majesty and the Tycoon of Japan”. In 1863, Rutherford Alcock, the first British diplomat in Japan, and the first non-Japanese person ever to climb Mount Fuji, published a book with the very descriptive title: The Capital of the Tycoon: A narrative of a three years’ residence in Japan.
But at almost the same time, it was used jokingly to describe powerful people, including Abraham Lincoln. As early as 1861 he was referred to as a tycoon.
However, it was only in the last 50 years that the word tycoon evolved into a synonym for a successful and powerful business person who controls a commercial empire in a specific industry, often wielding more power than the original lords. Early examples are Onassis, a shipping tycoon, and Henry Ford, the automotive tycoon.Present-day tycoons include Rupert Murdoch or Carlos Slim with their predominance in media and telecoms respectively. The modern Russian equivalent is oligarch.
