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Will Madoff be the new Ponzi?

Bernard Madoff may have to wait awhile before his name becomes a term in the popular lexicon and bumps off "Ponzi", which has become shorthand for financial fraud.

  • Agencies
  • Published: 23:30 December 16, 2008
  • Gulf News

New York: Bernard Madoff may have to wait awhile before his name becomes a term in the popular lexicon and bumps off "Ponzi", which has become shorthand for financial fraud.

Madoff's name is already being used for puns, such as "He Made-off with my money", following his arrest last week on fraud charges in what investigators said was a "Ponzi" scheme that cost his investors $50 billion (Dh183.5 billion).

But despite the relevance of his name to his alleged crime, "Madoff" is up against a strong incumbent if it is to become part of the American vernacular and earn a spot in the country's dictionaries.

"A word has to become a naturalised citizen of our vocabulary," said Peter Sokolowski, an editor at Springfield dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.

That means it has to be used plenty, far and wide, and for a long time, he said. Merriam-Webster editors spend one hour of every day scouring periodicals, books, and journals to decide if a word is popular enough for inclusion in the dictionary.

"It [Madoff] could become a word real quickly, but whether it gets into the dictionary depends on its staying power," Sokolowski said.

For "Madoff" to be as successful, it would have to become a generic term for financial malfeasance and displace "Ponzi", said Sokolowski.

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