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What does the noun yacht mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun yacht . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

How common is the noun yacht ?

How is the noun yacht pronounced?

British english, u.s. english, where does the noun yacht come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the noun yacht is in the late 1500s.

OED's earliest evidence for yacht is from before 1584, in the writing of S. Borough.

yacht is a borrowing from Dutch .

Etymons: Dutch jaght(e .

Nearby entries

• yabber, v. 1841–
• yabbering, n. 1839–
• yabble, n. 1827–
• yabble, v. 1808–
• yabbler, n. 1901–
• yabby, n. 1887–
• yabby, v. 1941–
• yabbying, n. 1934–
• yabu, n. 1753–
• yacca, n. 1843–
• yacht, n. a1584–
• yacht, v. 1836–
• yacht basin, n. 1929–
• yacht broker, n. 1882–
• yachtdom, n. 1901–
• yachter, n. 1828–
• yachtery, n. 1861–
• yachtian, n. 1842–
• yachtie, n. 1874–
• yachting, n. 1836–
• yachting, adj. 1847–

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Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for yacht, n..

yacht, n. was first published in 1921; not yet revised.

yacht, n. was last modified in July 2023.

Revision of the OED is a long-term project. Entries in oed.com which have not been revised may include:

• corrections and revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations which have been added in subsequent print and online updates.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into yacht, n. in July 2023.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

OED First Edition (1921)

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OED Second Edition (1989)

• View yacht, n. in OED Second Edition

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Citation details

Factsheet for yacht, n., browse entry.

Definition of 'yacht'

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yacht in American English

Yacht in british english, examples of 'yacht' in a sentence yacht, trends of yacht.

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50 Nautical, Sailing & Boat Terms for Beginners 

Table of Contents

Last Updated on September 29, 2023 by Boatsetter Team

Boating has its own vocabulary and if you’re going to be spending time on the water, you should understand a few basic boat terms. Knowing these will make you safer as well as more useful whether boating on your own, chartering or helping friends on their boat.

Let’s divide these words into basic nautical terms and specific sailing terms, listed in alphabetical order.

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30 Commonly Used Nautical & Boating Terms

Here are a few expressions you’ll hear aboard both a powerboat and sailboat, or even at the dock before boarding your boat rental or charter.

• Aft – the direction toward the back or stern of a boat.
• Ashore – not on a boat but on land or a dock .
• Ballast – extra weight laid low in a boat to provide stability.
• Beam – the width of a boat at its widest point, usually the middle.
• Bow – the front of a boat. Multihulls like catamarans have more than one bow.
• Bunk – a built-in bed on a boat.
• Cabin – the sleeping accommodations on a boat .
• Cockpit – the main seating area of a boat that may also include the helm station .
• Crew – the people or staff that help drive and manage the boat.
• Deck – the top or horizontal structure that is laid over the hull of a deck.
• Dock line – the ropes used to tie a boat to a dock.
• Fender – a rubber, vinyl or foam bumper used to protect the boat at a dock; often referred to by novice boaters as “bumpers.”
• Forward – the direction toward the front or bow of a boat.
• Galley – the kitchen on a boat. It can be inside or out on deck.
• Head – the toilet or bathroom on a boat.
• Helm – the boat’s steering mechanism. It can be a tiller or a wheel.
• Helm station – the area where from which you command or drive a boat.
• Hull – the body or shell of a boat including the bow and stern.
• Keel – the longitudinal structure at the bottom of the hull and generally on the centerline. The keel helps with stability and tracking.
• Knot – either various loops tied in a line or a unit of speed which equals one nautical mile per hour.
• Line – any rope on a boat is referred to as a line – not a rope.
• Nautical mile – a unit of measurement used on the water. A nautical mile is approximately 1.2x a statue mile.
• Onboard – on a boat whether on deck, on the cockpit or below.
• Port – the left-hand side of a boat when you’re facing forward or toward the bow.
• Rudder – an appendage below the boat that is controlled by the wheel or tiller to steer the boat. A boat may have more than one rudder.
• Starboard – the right-hand side of a boat when you’re facing forward.
• Stern – the place at the back of a boat.
• Transom – the actual structure of the back edge of a boat.
• Wake – the turbulence left behind a moving boat.
• Waterline – the place where the hull of a boat meets the surface of the water.

20 Sailing & Sailboat Terms

Within boating, sailing has its own specific vernacular. You’ll want to understand it before you step aboard a sailboat to help crew or when taking a lesson.

• Apparent wind – the combination of true wind and the motion of the boat at the time. It’s the wind you feel onboard.
• Boom – the horizontal pole which extends from the mast aft. It holds the bottom of the mainsail.
• Ease – to adjust sails outward or away from the centerline of a boat.
• Halyard – the line used to raise a sail whether a mainsail or a headsail.
• Headsail – a sail that is forward of the mast. It can be a genoa, a jib, a staysail or a small storm sail.
• In irons – technically a point of sail when you’re head-to-wind meaning the bow is pointing directly into the true wind and the boat is unable to maneuver.
• Jibing (also spelled gybing) – changing direction where the stern swings through the eye of the wind.
• Leeward – the direction away from where the wind is blowing.
• Mainsail – the primary sail on a boat which is usually attached in some way to the mast and boom. On most sailboats it’s the primary source of power.
• Mast – the vertical pole that supports the sails. The mast itself is supported by the rigging.
• Points of sail – the boat’s direction under sail relative to the true wind . The points of sail are: close-hauled, close reach, beam reach, broad reach and dead run.
• Reefing – shortening or reducing the area of a sail to de-power a sailboat usually used in a strong wind.
• Sheet – the line that controls the angle of a sail. There are mainsheets, jib/genoa sheets and others.
• Shroud – a part of the boat’s rigging that supports the mast from side-to-side
• Stay – a part of the boat’s rigging that supports the mast fore and aft.
• Tacking – changing direction under sail where the bow swings through the eye of the wind.
• Trim – to adjust sails inward or closer to the centerline of a boat.
• True wind – the actual wind that is blowing – both direction and speed.
• Winch – a rotating drum used to help control lines with a lot of pressure on them. A winch is cranked with a winch handle.
• Windward – the direction from where the wind is blowing.

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Zuzana Prochazka is an award-winning freelance journalist and photographer with regular contributions to more than a dozen sailing and powerboating magazines and online publications including Southern Boating, SEA, Latitudes & Attitudes and SAIL. She is SAIL magazines Charter Editor and the Executive Director of Boating Writers International. Zuzana serves as judge for SAIL’s Best Boats awards and for Europe’s Best of Boats in Berlin. 

A USCG 100 Ton Master, Zuzana founded and manages a flotilla charter organization called Zescapes that takes guests adventure sailing at destinations worldwide. 

Zuzana has lived in Europe, Africa and the United States and has traveled extensively in South America, the islands of the South Pacific and Mexico. 

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A to Z of Nautical Terms: A Complete Glossary of Boat Terminology

Are you a new boat owner? Whether you bought a jet ski or a 40-foot cabin cruiser, you’re going to need to understand the lingo while you’re out on the water. Here’s a glossary of basic nautical terms to have you sounding like a sailor.

Toward the stern of the vessel.

A sail position with the wind striking on its leeward side.

Around or near the stern of the vessel.

At a right-angle to the boat’s center-line.

Lashing the helm to the leeward side to ride out bad weather without the sails set.

The center of the deck of the vessel between the fore-and-aft.

Automatic Identification System.

Apparent Wind

The speed and direction of the wind combined with the boat’s movement and the true wind speed and direction.

To look behind the boat while driving in reverse.

Automatic Radar Plotting Aid.

Athwartships

At a right-angle to the aft-and-fore line of the vessel.

The act of measuring the angular distance on the horizon circle in a clockwise method, typically between a heavenly body and an observer.

When the wind starts to shift in an anti-clockwise direction.

Back a sail

Sheeting the sail to the windward direction, so the wind fills the sail on the leeward side.

The stay supports the aft from the mast, preventing its forward movement.

Baggywrinkle

The teased-out plaited rope wound around the stays or shrouds preventing chaffing.

Iron or lead weights are fixed in a low-access area of the vessel or on the keel to stabilize the boat.

A flexible and lightweight strip feeds into the sail leech’s batten pocket, supporting the roach.

Ballast Keel

A ballast bolted to the keel, increasing the vessel’s stability to prevent capsizing.

The widest point of the vessel or a traverse member supporting the deck. On the beam, objects are at a right-angle to the center-line.

Taking the action of steering the vessel away from the wind.

To tag a zig-zagging approach into the wind or close-hauling with alternate tacks.

The object’s direction from the observer measured in magnetic or true degrees.

To fasten the rope around the cleat using a figure-8 knot.

Securing the sail to the spar before hoisting it or connecting two ropes using a knot.

A sleeping quarters on a boat or a slip occupied by a vessel in a marina or harbor.

The loop or bend in a knot.

The round, lower part of the hull where the water collects.

The pulley fixed inside a plastic or wooden casing with a rope running around a sheave and changing to pulling direction.

Boot-Topping

The narrow-colored stripe is painted between the topside enamel and bottom paint.

The heeling action of the boat when it slews to the broadside while running downwind. Abroach usually occurs in heavy seas.

Broad Reach

The point of sailing the vessel between a run and the beam reach with the wind blowing over the quarter.

The partitioning wall in the vessel athwartship.

A measurement of distance equal to 0.1-sea mile, 185-meters, or 200-yards.

Center-Line

The center of the vessel along the aft-to-fore line.

Center-Board

A board lowers through a slot on the keel for reducing leeway.

The fitting slipping over the boom like a claw. It attaches to the main sheet after you finish reefing the sail.

Chart Datum

The reference level on the charts below which the low tide level. The sounding features below the chart datum. The datum level varies depending on country and area.

The metal, wooden, or plastic fitting used to secure ropes.

Close-Hauled

The skill of sailing close to the wind, also known as beating.

The lower, aft corner of the sail where the leech and foot meet.

Close Reach

The point where you’re sailing between the beam reach and the close-hauled or when the wind blows toward the forward of the beam.

The direction that you steer the vessel in degrees. Mariners can use true or magnetic readings or use a compass to plot the course.

Close-Winded

The act of sailing a boat close to the wind.

The rope loop at either end of the line reef points or an eye in a sail.

The difference between the direction indicated by the magnetic meridian and the compass needle, caused by carrying metal objects aboard the vessel.

Sailing with the wind blowing to the aft, in line with the center-line of the vessel.

Displacement

The displacement hull design displaces boat weight in the water and is only supported by its buoyancy.

The weight of the water displaced by the vessel is equal to the vessel’s weight.

The rope used to pull down the spar or sail.

To float the vessel with the wind or current. Or the distance covered by the boat while drifting in the current, measured in time.

The distance between the lowest point on the keel and the center-line of the vessel measured as a vertical distance.

The sea anchor thrown over the stern of a life raft or boat or to reduce drift.

Digital Selective Calling (a function on Marine radios ).

A retractable keel drawn into the vessel’s hull.

Emergency Position Indication Radio Beacon.

Estimated Position.

Estimated Time of Departure.

Estimated Time of Arrival.

The fitting adjusting the feeding line allows you to change the direction of the lead line.

The raised border on cabin tables, chart tables, preventing objects from falling off the surface.

Measurement of water depth and rope lengths.

• 1 Fathom = 6-feet = 1.83-meters.

The vessel positioning plotted by two or more positioning lines.

The vertical distance between the top of the deck and the waterline.

The closest stay running between the masthead and stemhead, hankering the mainsail.

A large-size headsail is available in various sizes, overlapping the mainsail before hoisting in fresh to light winds on all sailing points.

Two concentric rings pivot at right-angles to keep objects horizontal despite the swaying motion of the boat.

Global Navigation Satellite System.

Global Maritime Distress and Safety System.

To change tack by turning the boat into the eye of the wind.

Booming out the headsail in a windward position using the whisker pole to hold it on the opposite side of the mainsail.

The fitting anchoring the mast to the boom, allowing free movement in all directions.

This metal rail surrounds the boat’s edges, allowing easy gripping to prevent falling overboard.

Turning the stern through the wind to change from one tack to another.

The spinnaker guy controls the steadying rope for the spar through the aft-fore position of the spinnaker pole. The foreguy keeps the spinnaker pole in the forward position.

Global Positioning System.

The rope hoisting the lower sails.

Highest Astronomical Tide.

The fitting for attaching the sail’s luff to a stay.

The deck opening provides the crew with access to the berth or cabin interior.

The streamlined surround of a forestay featuring the groove allows for the sliding attachment of the luff sides of the headsail.

Head-to-Wind

When the bow of the vessel points into the direction of the wind.

The forward motion of the vessel through the water.

The toilet.

The action of backing the jib and lashing the tiller to the leeward side in rough weather conditions. The heave-to encourages the vessel to reduce headway and lie quietly.

When the vessel exaggeratedly leans to one side.

International Maritime Organization.

International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea.

International Telecommunication Union

The lines on weather maps joining places with equal atmospheric pressure.

The temporary device for replacing damaged or lost gear.

The line running from aft-to-fore on both sides of the vessel. The jackstays allow for the clipping attachment of safety harnesses to prevent being lost at sea when falling overboard.

A secondary, smaller, lightweight anchor.

A dual-masted sailboat featuring a mizzen mast that’s slightly smaller than its mainmast, with a stepped forward position of the rudder post/stock.

The center-line of the vessel features the attachment of the ballast keel, allowing for the lowering of the center-board.

Kicking Strap

The line for pulling down the boom or keeping it in the horizontal position when on a run or reach.

A short length of line attached to an important object that you don’t want to lose, such as the jet ski key. The lanyard can connect to your wrist or lifejacket.

The aft edge of the triangular sail. Both side-edges of a square sail.

Lowest Astronomical Tide.

The shore on which the wind is blowing.

The natural tendency of vessels to bear away from the direction of the wind.

Moving in a direction away from the wind. The direction in which the wind is blowing.

The vessel’s leaning to one side due to improper distribution of weight in the boat’s hull.

The leading edge of the sail. Luffing up is turning the head of the boat into the wind.

The sideways motion off course resulting from the wind blowing on one side of the hull and sails.

The instrument for measuring the distance and speed of a boat traveling through the water. It is also the act of recording the details of a voyage in a logbook.

Marinized engine

A car engine or motorbike motor adapted for use in watercraft.

Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

The keel socket locating the base of the mast.

Measured Mile

The distance marked on charts measures one nautical mile between islands at sea or onshore ranges.

The short after-mast on the yawl or ketch.

This imaginary longitudinal line circling the earth, passing through both poles, cutting at right-angles through the equator.

Mean Low Water Neaps.

Mean High Water Neaps.

Mean High Water Springs.

Mean Low Water Springs.

Maritime Mobile Service Identity.

The rope used for pulling out the sail’s foot.

Overall Length (LOA)

The extreme length of the vessel. The measurement from the aftmost point of the stern to the foremost points of the bow. This measurement excludes the self-steering gear, bowsprit, etc.

An emergency call requesting immediate assistance.

The bowline on a tender or dinghy for towing or making fast.

To gradually let out the rope.

The left-hand side of the vessel when looking forward.

Point of Sailing

The angles of the wind allowing for the sailing of the boat. Or the boat’s course relative to its direction and the direction of the wind.

Your vessel is on its port track when the wind is striking the boat’s port side first, and the mainsail is out to the starboard side.

Line of Position/Position Line

The line on charts shows the bearing of the vessel and the position where the boat mist lie. Or two positional lines providing a location fix.

The steel guard rail fitted to the bow to provide additional safety for the crew when working around the boat’s edge.

The steel guard rail fitted around the stern of the boat to prevent the crew from falling overboard.

The section of the vessel midway between the beam and the stern.

The difference in water levels between the high and low tides is the range of tides. Or the distance at which you can see the light.

The act of reducing the sail surface area through folding or rolling additional materials onto the forestay or boom.

Reefing Pennant

The sturdy line allowing you to pull down the leech cringle or luff to the boom while reefing.

When sailing with the wind blowing onto the beam, with all sailing points between close-hauled and running.

Riding Sail

The small sail you hoist to maintain the steerage way during stormy weather.

The imaginary line cuts through all meridians at the same angle. Or the course of the vessel moving in a fixed direction.

Rigging Screw

The deck fitting allowing for tensioning of the standing rigging.

The act of sailing with the wind to the aft of the vessel and with the sails eased into the wide-out, full position.

The curve in a leech sail extending beyond the direct line formed from clew to head.

Running Rigging

All moving lines like halyards and sheets used for trimming and setting sails.

Search and Rescue.

A vessel with two or more masts and the mainmast featured in the aftermost position.

Search and Rescue Transponder.

The toe-rail holes allowing water to drain off the deck.

The room in which the vessel can maneuver clear of submerged dangers.

The shut-off valve for the underwater outlet or inlet passing through the vessel’s hull.

This is French for “radio silence.” You’ll use it when reporting a distress call or incident at sea.

The act of hoisting a sail. Or how the sails fit or the direction of a tidal stream or current.

A procedure word for identifying safety calls.

A steel link featuring a removable bolt crossing the open end. The shackle comes in various designs, from “S” to “U” shapes and more.

The cables or ropes typically fund in pairs, leading from the mast to the chainplates at the deck level. These shrouds prevent the mast from falling to the side, and it’s part of your standing rigging.

The rope attaching to the boom to the sail’s clew allows for the trimming and control over the sail.

Skin Fitting

A through-hull fitting featuring a hole in its skin allows for air and water passing. The seacock is the accessory used for sealing the cavity when not in use.

A boat with a single-masted design for one headsail and one mainsail.

The general term for any metal or wooden pole on board a boat. The pole gives shape to the sails.

Safety of Life at Sea.

Speed Over the Ground

A lightweight, large balloon-shaped sail for running or reacting.

The horizontal struts attach to the mast and extend to the shrouds to assist with supporting the mast.

The act of joining wires or ropes using a weaving process interlacing the fibers in the cable or rope.

The sail will stall if the airflow over the sail surface breaks up, causing the vessel to lose its momentum.

Standing Part

The part of the line you don’t use when making a knot. Or the part of a rope you use to tie around the knot.

The metal post bolted to the deck in an upright position to support the guard railing.

Standing Rigging

The stays and shrouds provide permanent support to the mast.

Starboard Tack

The vessel is on the starboard tack when the boom is out to post, and the wind strikes the boat’s starboard side.

The right-hand side of the vessel when looking forward.

The rope or wire supports the mast in the fore-and-aft direction. It is a part of the standing rigging for your boat.

The sternward movement of the vessel towards the backward direction.

Steerage Way

The vessel has steerage when it reaches sufficient speed, allowing for steering or answering the helm.

The loop of rope or wire attaches the spar to the block to make a sling.

The railing around the vessel’s stern prevents the crew from falling overboard. Modern yachts do not have the elegant wooden railing of older models. Instead, they feature tubular steel or aluminum railings, called Pushpits.

Telegraph Buoy

The buoy marks the position of a submerged cable.

To pull on the end of the rope or cable, wound around a winch.

The compass mounted over the captain’s berth, allowing for the easy reference to what’s going on in the vessel’s helm.

The metal fitting forming eyes at the end of cables, wires, or ropes.

A description for any small boat, usually inflatable models. These boats will take supplies and people between a larger vessel and the shore.

Thermal Wind

The wind occurring from the difference in the heating of the sea and the land by the sun. The sun heats the land faster than the sea, resulting in the onshore wind from the sea replacing the air rising over the land, causing the “sea breeze” phenomenon.

Thumb Cleat

A small cleat featuring a single horn.

The wooden pegs featuring vertical pairs in the gunwale for constraining the oars for rowing.

Topping Lift

The rope linking the mast to the boom end. It supports the boom, allowing for its lowering and raising.

The progress on the vessel’s journey over the ocean. The trajectory line of the boat.

The sides of the hull between the waterline and the deck.

The netting stretching across the hulls of a catamaran.

A watch period or watch duty at the helm of the vessel.

Traverse beams forming part of the stern and fixed to the sternpost of a wooden ship.

Tricolor Lamp

A lamp displaying red in proper port sectors, green in the starboard sectors, and white astern. Some authorities permit the tri-color light on smaller boats instead of conventional stern and bow lights.

Turk’s Head

A decorative knot featuring variable numbers of interwoven strands that form a closed loop.

The direction and velocity of wind measured by stationary observers. Apparent wind is wind experienced by moving objects.

Sturdy steel fittings used for attaching standing rigging to the spar or mast.

The low, forward corner of the sail. Or the action of turning the boat through the wind to get it to blow on the other side of the sails.

Sailing close-hauled to work windward on an alternate course. The wind is on one side then the other.

The low strip of steel, wood, or strapping running along the edge of the deck. You’ll use it in combination with the hand railing to hold your feet to the deck to prevent falling overboard.

The rise and fall of the ocean are caused by the moon’s gravitational effect on the earth and the ocean.

The line moving from the mast had to the spar or the boom used in raising it.

To adjust the sail angle using sheets to achieve optimal efficiency from the sail. Or it describes the action of adjusting the load, influencing the fore-and-aft angle at which it floats.

The course of the boat making good on its travel plan. A fitting of on the boom or mast to the slide on the sail fit. The fitting along which the traveler runs for altering the sheet tension.

The speed and direction of the wind when anchored, stationary on the water, or land.

Turn Buckle

The apparatus used for tightening the standing rigging on the vessel.

A line used in raising something like a spinnaker pole vertically.

The vessel is underway when it releases it fastening to shore when it is not aground or at anchor.

See kicking strap.

The wind will veer when shifting in a clockwise direction. Veering can also mean paying out anchor rope or cable in a controlled manner.

Velocity Made Good

Very High Frequency

The disturbed water left behind (astern) the boat as it moves forward in the water, usually caused by a motor.

Weather Helm

The tendency of the vessel to turn into the wind.

The distance between the radio waves.

Weather Side

The side of the vessel to which the wind is blowing.

World Geodetic Survey of 1984 (most common chart datum).

A mechanical device featuring a cable or line attached to a motor. The winch pulls the boat aboard the trailer and helps with the vessel’s launch from the trailer. The winch also gives more pulling power to withdrawing nets or other apparatus from the water.

Whisker Pole

A lightweight pole used for holding the clew out of the headsail when on a run.

The winch features a vertical handle and a horizontal shaft used in hauling up the anchor chain.

The parts of the vessel that increase the drag on the boat. Examples would be the spars, rigging, etc.

The direction from which the wind blows toward the wind (the opposite way to leeward).

Cross Track Error. The perpendicular distance between two waypoints off track.

A dual-masted vessel with its mizzen stepped aft of its rudder post/stock.

John is an experienced journalist and veteran boater. He heads up the content team at BoatingBeast and aims to share his many years experience of the marine world with our readers.

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Big algebras: A dictionary of abstract math

Abstract algebra and algebraic geometry to connect quantum physics with number theory.

Several fields of mathematics have developed in total isolation, using their own 'undecipherable' coded languages. In a new study published in PNAS , Tamás Hausel, professor of mathematics at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), presents "big algebras," a two-way mathematical 'dictionary' between symmetry, algebra, and geometry, that could strengthen the connection between the distant worlds of quantum physics and number theory.

Technical Toolkit: Symmetry and commutativity, from esthetics to functionality

• The group of all transformations under which a mathematical object remains invariant is called a ' symmetry group .'
• Symmetries such as the rotation of a circle or a sphere can be classified as ' continuous .' (Contrary to this, an example of a ' discrete ' symmetry is the mirroring of a bilaterally symmetrical object like a butterfly's wings.)
• Continuous symmetry groups are mathematically represented by matrices -- rectangular arrays of numbers -- which can convert the properties of the mathematical object into linear algebra.
• Rotations of a circle can be seen as a commutative continuous symmetry group . In contrast, the symmetry group of the planet Earth is non-commutative: if one starts by looking at the equator going through Africa, rotating left then down does not produce the same result as rotating down then left. In the first case, one's view would be centered on the South Pole. In the second, one would arrive at the equator in the western hemisphere with the poles positioned horizontally.
• Non-commutative symmetry groups have been so far represented by non-commutative matrices , i.e., matrices in which the order of operations influences the end result. However, this does not allow a geometric interpretation as the geometry of non-commutative algebras is not yet well understood. On the other hand, commutative algebras can be well understood through their geometry.
• A "big algebra" is a commutative 'translation' of a non-commutative matrix algebra, and thus allows the use of algebraic geometry techniques. As a result, big algebras shed new light on the properties of non-commutative continuous symmetry groups.

Mathematics, the most exact among scientific disciplines, could be viewed as the ultimate quest for absolute truth. However, the mathematical roads to truth often need to overcome tremendous obstacles, much like conquering unimaginably high mountain peaks or building giant bridges between isolated continents. The mathematical world abounds with mysteries and several mathematical disciplines have developed along convoluted paths -- in complete isolation from one another. Thus, establishing an irrefutable truth around complex phenomena in the physical world draws on intuition and a good deal of abstraction. Even fundamental aspects of physics push mathematics to new heights of complexity. This is especially true for symmetries, with the help of which physicists have theorized and discovered an entire zoo of subatomic particles that make up our universe.

In an exceptionally ambitious endeavor, Tamás Hausel, professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), not only conjectured but also proved a new mathematical tool called "big algebras." This new theorem is comparable to a 'dictionary' that deciphers the most abstract aspects of mathematical symmetry using algebraic geometry. By operating at the intersection of symmetry, abstract algebra, and geometry, big algebras use more tangible geometric information to recapitulate sophisticated mathematical information about symmetries. "With big algebras, information from the 'tip of the mathematical iceberg' can give us unprecedented insights into the hidden depths of the mysterious world of symmetry groups," says Hausel. With this mathematical breakthrough, Hausel seeks to consolidate the connection between two distant fields of mathematics: "Imagine, on the one hand, a world of mathematical representations of quantum physics, and on the other hand, very, very far away, the purely mathematical world of number theory. With the present work, I hope to have come one step closer to establishing a stable connection between these two worlds."

No longer lost in translation

The 17 th -century philosopher and mathematician René Descartes showed us that we could understand the geometry of objects by using algebraic equations. Thus, he was the first to 'translate' mathematical information between these previously separate fields. "I like to view the relations between different mathematical fields as dictionaries that translate information between often non-mutually intelligible mathematical languages," says Hausel. So far, several such mathematical 'dictionaries' have been developed, but some only translate the information in one direction, leaving the information about the way back entirely encrypted. Furthermore, the term "algebra" nowadays encompasses both classical algebra, as in Descartes' time, and abstract algebra, i.e. the study of mathematical structures that cannot necessarily be expressed with numerical values. This adds another layer of complexity. Now, Hausel uses abstract algebra and algebraic geometry as a two-way 'dictionary'.

A skeleton and nerves

In mathematics, symmetry is defined as a form of 'invariance'. The group of transformations that keep a mathematical object unchanged is called a "symmetry group." These are classified as 'continuous' (e.g., the rotation of a circle or sphere) or 'discrete' (e.g., the mirroring of an object). Continuous symmetry groups are represented mathematically by matrices -- rectangular arrays of numbers. Starting from a matrix representation of a continuous symmetry group, Hausel can compute the big algebra and represent its essential properties geometrically by drawing its 'skeleton' and 'nerves' on a mathematical surface. The big algebra's skeleton and nerves give rise to interesting, 3D-printable shapes that recapitulate sophisticated aspects of the original mathematical information, thus closing the translation circle. "I am particularly excited about this work, as it provides us with a completely novel approach to studying representations of continuous symmetry groups. With big algebras, the mathematical 'translation' does not only work in one direction but in both."

Bridging isolated continents in a vast world of mathematics

How could big algebras strengthen the link between quantum physics and number theory, two fields of mathematics seemingly worlds apart? Firstly, the math behind quantum physics makes extensive use of matrices -- rectangular arrays of numbers. However, these matrices are typically 'non-commutative,' meaning that multiplying the first matrix by the second does not yield the same result as multiplying the second one by the first. This poses a problem in algebra and algebraic geometry as non-commutative algebra is not yet well understood. Big algebras now solve this problem: when computed, a big algebra is a commutative 'mathematical translation' of a non-commutative matrix algebra. Thus, the information initially enclosed within non-commutative matrices can be decoded and represented geometrically to reveal their hidden properties.

Secondly, Hausel shows that big algebras not only reveal relationships between related symmetry groups, but also when their so-called "Langlands duals" are related. These duals are a central concept in the purely mathematical world of number theory. In the Langlands Program, a highly intricate, large-scale dictionary that seeks to bridge isolated mathematical 'continents,' the Langlands duality is a concept or tool that allows 'mapping' mathematical information between different categories. "In my work, big algebras seem to relate different symmetry groups precisely when their Langlands duals are related, a quite surprising outcome with possible applications in number theory," says Hausel.

"Ideally, big algebras would allow me to relate the Langlands duality in number theory with quantum physics," says Hausel. For now, he was able to demonstrate that big algebras solve problems on both of these continents. The fog has started to dissipate, and the continents of quantum physics and number theory have caught a glimpse of each others' mountains and shores on the horizon. Soon, rather than only connecting the continents by boat, a bridge of big algebras might allow an easier crossing of the mathematical strait separating them.

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Materials provided by Institute of Science and Technology Austria . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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• Tamás Hausel. Commutative avatars of representations of semisimple Lie groups . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 2024; 121 (38) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2319341121

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writedictionary

Write dictionary to file

Since R2024b

Description

writedictionary( d , filename ) writes the contents of dictionary d to a file with the name and extension specified by filename . For example, the writedictionary function writes the input dictionary to a JSON file when .json is specified as the file extension in filename .

writedictionary( d , filename , Name=Value ) specifies options using one or more name-value arguments. For example, you can export the contents of the input dictionary as a JSON file regardless of the file extension specified in filename by calling writedictionary(d,filename,FileType="json") .

collapse all

Write Dictionary to File

Create a dictionary and write it to a JSON file.

Display the created file.

Write Dictionary to File Without Indentation

Create a dictionary and write it to a JSON file without indentation.

Input Arguments

D — input dictionary matlab ® dictionary.

Input dictionary, specified as a MATLAB dictionary. A dictionary is a map that stores data as values , which can be accessed using corresponding unique keys . Each pair of keys and values is an entry . For more information on dictionaries, see dictionary .

When creating JSON files, writedictionary writes missing values as null values and NaN values as null or NaN values depending on the PreserveInfAndNaN name-value argument.

filename — Name of file to write string scalar | character vector

Name of the file to write, specified as a string scalar or character vector. If filename does not exist, then the writing function creates the file. If filename is an existing file, then the function overwrites it.

Depending on the location you are writing to, filename can take one of these forms.

For more information, see Work with Remote Data .

Example: "s3://bucketname/path_to_file/my_file.json"

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN , where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Example: writedictionary(d,filename,PreserveInfandNaN=false) writes all Inf and NaN values as JSON null values.

FileType — Type of file "auto" (default) | "json"

Type of file, specified as one of these values:

"auto" — Automatically detect the file format to write from the extension specified in filename .

"json" — Export the contents of the dictionary as a JSON file, regardless of the file extension specified in filename .

If you specify a file extension in filename that is not .json , you can specify FileType as "json" to write the contents of the input dictionary as JSON.

PrettyPrint — Indent text true or 1 (default) | false or 0

Indent text in the output file, specified as a numeric or logical 1 ( true ) or 0 ( false ). If you specify the argument as true , then writedictionary writes the JSON text with an indentation of four spaces. If you specify the argument as false , then writedictionary writes the JSON text without spaces or line breaks.

PreserveInfAndNaN — Preserve Inf and NaN values in JSON file true or 1 (default) | false or 0

Preserve Inf and NaN values in the output JSON file, specified as a numeric or logical 1 ( true ) or 0 ( false ). Specify this argument as false to write all Inf and NaN values as JSON null values.

Version History

Introduced in R2024b

dictionary | readdictionary

MATLAB Command

You clicked a link that corresponds to this MATLAB command:

Run the command by entering it in the MATLAB Command Window. Web browsers do not support MATLAB commands.

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The Anti-Capitalist Dictionary: How to Read Between the Lies

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Why was a level 4 microbiology laboratory allowed to transfer a dangerous virus to wuhan, fanon’s fanboys: how the violent decolonization movement was brought to canada, “genocide” canada’s government wanted to close every indian residential school in the 1940s, the housing market isn’t racist. blame your parents instead.

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’

—Alice Through the Looking Glass , by Lewis Carroll

Words can be like tiny doses of arsenic; they are swallowed unnoticed, appear to have no effect, and then after a little time the toxic reaction sets in after all.” That is how Victor Klemperer, a German Jew who miraculously survived Hitler’s Germany, described the Nazi regime’s manipulation of words and their meaning in his 1957 book The Language of the Third Reich . The endless public repetition of fascist idioms and phrases regarding race, duty and country, Klemperer argued, turned the German population into unthinking servants of the Nazi cause.

The approach in the Soviet Union was different in tactics but no less destructive. “Total power over the Word gives the Master of the Word a magical power over all communications,” wrote Russian historian Mikhail Heller in his 1988 book Cogs in the Wheel: The Formation of Soviet Man . By using fear and intimidation to control what its citizens could say, the Communist regime was able to control what they thought as well. “The Soviet language became the most important means of preventing people from acquiring more knowledge than the state wished,” explained Heller.

Western democracies crushed Nazism and then faced down the Soviet Empire through intense military and economic competition as well as the promise of freedom. Today, however, these forces of linguistic control are again being wielded by propagandists embedded deep within our own society. It is now common for words to be assigned meanings that either signify the opposite of what they once did, or are bastardized in some way as to be unmoored from any permanent or coherent definition. And always with political purpose.

The redefinition of sex as socially-constructed gender and the creation of a multiplicity of gender identities – enforced by intense institutional pressure but lacking any scientific evidence or logic – is just one example of this destructive wordplay. The poisonous concept of “anti-racism”, which has become cover for the implementation of many explicitly racist policies, is another.

What were once benign notions of markets, entrepreneurship and the free exchange of ideas, goods and services have been corrupted and/or smeared by the left. Tweet

As Trent University historian Christopher Dummitt recently pointed out in the National Post, a blizzard of new terms has been invented to remove the concept of personal responsibility from all public discourse. The homeless, once “vagrants”, are now referred to as “the unsheltered”, the free distribution of harmful illegal drugs has become “harm reduction”, and self-administered drug overdoses have been rebranded as “accidental poisonings”.

The underlying purpose, Dummitt explains, is ideological. “The intention is clear: to remove stigma and any overt suggestion of personal responsibility,” he wrote. “The new names are meant to reorient our thinking so that we understand that the real causes of misfortune to be societal or systemic. If a word has shameful connotations, that seems to be enough to warrant change.”

The same conceptual reorganization is at play with how Canadians discuss fundamental economic and intellectual concepts as well. What were once benign notions of markets, entrepreneurship and the free exchange of ideas, goods and services have been corrupted and/or smeared by the left in the same way that personal responsibility has been erased from public conversations through the appearance of new words and meanings for drug use and other individual failings.

With this damaging process threatening the very conception of private property and individual economic freedom, C2C Journal has curated a list of 11 terms currently being used propagandistically by the left. It includes long-established words redefined in deliberately unsettling ways and tired old socialist objectives disguised as market-friendly innovations as well as some outright fabrications. We call this our “Anti-Capitalist Dictionary”. Each word or phrase listed below is introduced with an example of its typical current usage (that is to say, its misusage ), along with the source of the example, and then a discussion/deconstruction of its flaws. Finally, we offer a truthful alternative to use in its place. As they say, forewarned is forearmed.

Child Care Deserts

Typical usage: “Saskatchewan has the highest proportion of children living in child care deserts by far.”

— Not Done Yet: $10-a-day child care requires addressing Canada’s child care deserts , by David MacDonald and Martha Friendly, May 2023

A “child care desert” refers to an area that is said to be short of daycare spaces. And while the federal government’s heavily subsidized, $10 per day child care program was promoted as the means to create a jungle of new spaces at a phenomenally low cost, Canada appears strangely awash in “deserts” as parents everywhere complain about a worsening shortage of spaces . Among child care advocates, this situation is cause for even greater government spending (or “investment” as they misleadingly put it). The desert must be defeated!

As previous C2C Journal articles have shown, however, this rampant desertification is a direct result of a federal plan that explicitly discriminates against for-profit daycare providers. In many provinces, private operators deliver the majority of child care spaces. If the goal is to boost the supply of practically anything, the private sector is nearly always nimbler and more cost-effective than the public or non-profit sectors. For this reason, Ottawa’s attack on private child care providers is doing great harm to parents. It’s no coincidence that Saskatchewan is the Sahara of Canada’s child care deserts; it also has the nation’s lowest share of for-profit child care . By treating Canada’s child care shortages as some sort of external force of nature – one that only governments can withstand and conquer – child care activists are deliberately ignoring the importance of private capital and entrepreneurship to the daycare ecosystem.

Accurate alternative: “An absence of private sector supply.”

Typical usage: “Residential school denialists employ an array of rhetorical arguments. The end game of denialism is to obscure truth about Canada’s Indian Residential School system in ways that ultimately protect the status quo as well as guilty parties.”

— Truth before reconciliation: 8 ways to identify and confront Residential School denialism , by Daniel Heath Justice and Sean Carleton, University of British Columbia website

“Denialism” is frequently used as a slur against anyone who questions an established narrative. Most recently it has been applied to those who challenge claims that Canada’s Indian Residential School system was a deliberate program of genocide. But it also serves to advance numerous other ideological agendas. For example, Ross McKitrick, an economist at the University of Guelph, Ontario well-known for his rigorous, science-based approach to climate change , notes that he’s often denounced as a “denialist” when he uses evidence to point out holes in accepted green energy policy orthodoxy. This includes revealing the true (and often astronomical) cost of policies to “fight” climate change.

“The facts are clearly on one side, but if you stand up and point this out, you get called a denier,” McKitrick says in an interview. The insult’s impact is intensified by the fact the term originally stems from denial of the Holocaust. Observes McKitrick: “Opponents are thus treating you like a psychology case, rather than engaging with you on the merits of your argument.” It is a thoroughly nasty dodge for activists who are unprepared to defend their own position. Asked whether he has a preferred term for someone who questions established beliefs from a fact-based perspective, McKitrick suggests, somewhat wryly, “glorious truth-teller.” That works for us.

Accurate alternative: “Glorious truth-telling.”

Environmental Racism

Typical usage: “Environmental racism is a direct by-product of colonialism.”

— Fast Talk on Environmental Racism in Canada , Canadian Human Rights Commission, February 16, 2023

“Environmental racism” is a deliberately provocative term invented to explain why low-income individuals and families tend to live in less desirable (and hence cheaper) neighbourhoods or areas. Given that black and Indigenous families have a greater likelihood of having low incomes than other groups, this outcome is now declared racist.

Prior to the modern-day habit of labelling every situation of unequal outcomes in this way, such a scenario was known to economists as Ricardian land rents , after 19 th century British economist David Ricardo. It was Ricardo’s insight that the price of land is determined by its most productive use. If land on the outskirts of town or nearer a pulp mill is less desirable or less productive than land in a city’s downtown core or beside a lake, then it will also be cheaper – and thus more affordable for people with lower incomes.

“Most people don’t want to live adjacent to heavy industry et cetera, so people with lower incomes tend to move into those areas,” economist McKitrick observes. But calling this process environmental racism “gets the cause and effect backwards,” he says. There is no prejudice at work; low-income people moving to cheaper areas is simply a demonstration of the market at work.

Accurate alternative: “Cheap land means cheap rent.”

Typical Usage: “Equity: the principle of considering people’s unique experiences and differing situations, and ensuring they have access to the resources and opportunities that are necessary for them to attain just outcomes. Equity aims to eliminate disparities and disproportions that are rooted in historical and contemporary injustices and oppression.”

— Guide on Equity, Inclusion and Diversity , Government of Canada, 2022

Not that long ago, equity was defined as “the quality of being impartial; fairness,” as a desk copy of the 1988 Collins Concise Dictionary of the English Language explains. More recently, however, this definition has been turned on its head. “Equity”, as currently employed by governments, activists and other woke-infected institutions, entails the deliberately unequal treatment of individuals in order to fabricate uniform outcomes between groups . Instead of being fair to all job candidates, for example, equity now requires that individual applicants be treated very differently based on group membership or characteristics such as race, ethnicity, sex, gender or disability.

“My own school is a great example of this inherent unfairness,” says William McNally, a business professor at Wilfrid Laurier University’s Lazaridis School of Business and Economics in Waterloo, Ontario and an outspoken critic of diversity, equity and inclusion policies. “We now have teaching positions that are only available to black or Indigenous applicants. Whites are not allowed to apply,” he says in an interview. By suppressing or even abandoning the key criterion of individual merit, the school’s hiring process is being manipulated to achieve a particular, ideologically-driven outcome that is unfair to most potential candidates. In similar fashion, McNally observes, diversity has come to mean “people who look differently, but all think the same.” And inclusion now means the deliberate exclusion of many qualified candidates.

Accurate alternative: “Blatant favouritism.”

Excessive Net Profits

Typical Usage: “The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada consider implementing policies to effectively tackle excessive net profits in monopolistic and oligopolistic sectors in the food supply chain, which are driving up prices for consumers.”

— Report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food , House of Commons, May 2024

A recent House of Commons Agriculture and Agri-Food subcommittee report on food prices concocted the phrase “excessive net profits” to attack grocery companies. While politically useful, given popular concern over rising food costs, it betrays a fundamental lack of knowledge about accounting and prices. It is redundant to refer to “net profits”, as profits are already calculated on a net basis. If the intent is to examine some share of those profits, the term unhelpfully fails to indicate which items should be netted out .

As for the concept of what constitutes an excessive level of profits, that is an entirely subjective matter beyond the ken of any subcommittee. The profit margin (net earnings divided by gross revenue) at Loblaw Companies Ltd., the corporation at the centre of today’s political ire about food inflation, is a measly 3.4 percent , based on its most recent financial statements. By way of comparison, the profit margin at online retailer Amazon is a robust 9.1 percent, while at computer chip manufacturer Nvidia it’s an eye-popping 55 percent. How excessive is that? With store-bought food inflation peaking at 11.4 percent in 2023 , the rising cost of food would be a problem for Canadians even if Loblaw operated on a break-even basis.

By misidentifying the problem of profits, the Liberal-dominated subcommittee promotes the socialistic notion that government has a legitimate role in setting prices and establishing an appropriate level of income across industries. As the devastating effects of rent controls on the supply of rental housing readily illustrate, this is complete folly. Profit is the essential inducement for entrepreneurs to provide needed goods and services. And rising profits in a given industry or in the production of a given good or service signal that there is opportunity for additional profitable competition; this, in turn, brings prices back down. Canada is already experiencing a productivity crisis driven by a lack of capital and investment in productivity-enhancing machinery; telling entrepreneurs there is a government-mandated upper limit on their profitability will only exacerbate this potentially catastrophic problem.

Accurate alternative: “There is no competition without profit.”

Financialization

Typical usage: “The financialization of housing is recognized as a trend that is undermining the realization of the right to adequate housing.”

— The Financialization of Housing: A Summary Report for the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate , by Martine August, June 2022

What used to be known as ready access to capital – and considered a good thing – has been ominously relabelled as “financialization”, and become the all-purpose boogeyman of Canada’s housing crisis. Rather than pointing to the obvious imbalance between constrained housing construction and soaring demand caused by runaway immigration, the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate (FHA) repeatedly claims that housing-industry investors seeking to earn a return on their capital are the true cause of Canada’s housing affordability crisis. And the FHA’s solution is to eliminate the profit motive from the housing supply by advocating for a government/regulatory takeover of the industry which would make it impossible for entrepreneurs to survive.

The fight against financialization also has the FHA demanding that Ottawa erase any tax benefits associated with real estate investment trusts (REITs). Such a policy, as an EY consultancy report (link requires signing in) found, would “slow growth in the supply of available rental units” and thus worsen the housing crisis. Despite an earlier promise to stamp out financialization, however, Ottawa recently promised not to levy any new taxes on REITs . This was a rare wise move by Ottawa on housing policy. Canada requires more investors, more real estate developers and more property managers. Without the enormous financial resources and deep expertise of motivated real estate investors, including REITs, it will be impossible to meet the country’s need for 3.5 million new homes by 2030 .

Accurate alternative: “Building a lot of homes requires a lot of money.”

Living Wage

Typical usage: “The living wage is a bare-bones calculation that looks at the amount that a family of four needs to earn to meet their expenses.”

— Living Wage for Families BC website

Promoted by social advocacy groups as a replacement for the minimum wage, a “living wage” is always much higher than the legal minimum since it is intended to allow a sole earner to support a family not merely with bread on the table and a roof over their heads, but with other amenities such as holidays, a savings account and a gift budget. In other words, it is intended to provide a single-income household with a middle-class lifestyle.

Yet research by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business shows that only 1.5 percent of minimum-wage earners are single parents with a child to support. Presumably, even fewer comprise a 1950s-style nuclear family with one wage-earner and one stay-at-home parent. The vast majority of minimum-wage earners are actually under 25 and living with their parents. Accordingly, replacing current minimum wages with a living wage of $25 per hour or more will not make life better for struggling families. Rather, it will harm the economy’s youngest and least employable workers by making them too expensive to hire. A better approach can be found in Alberta, where the minimum wage for workers under 18 years is two dollars less per hour than for adults, reflecting their lower productivity and greater need for training.

“Living wage” is also an example of the left’s frequent linguistic tactic of framing market-based alternatives to their favoured policies as despicable, if not deadly. What is the opposite of a living wage? It must be a death wage.

Accurate alternative: “Youth-employment-reducing wage.”

Organizational Elder Abuse

Typical usage: “Lions Housing Centres and the Lions Club of Winnipeg have been accused of inflicting ‘organizational elder abuse’ on seniors because of the way they sold Lions Place to a for-profit real estate company in 2023.”

— “Tenants of former Lions Place victims of ‘organizational elder abuse’: report” by Kevin Rollason, Winnipeg Free Press , April 23, 2024

This phrase appears to have been invented by the left-wing lobby group Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) in a report on the sale of a Winnipeg seniors’ home run by the Lions Club, a charitable organization, to a private firm earlier this year. A Betrayal of Trust: Exploring the Financialization of Lions Place in Winnipeg as a Case of Organizational Elder Abuse offers no evidence that residents of the home have been mistreated in any way. Rather, the mere fact that the new owner, Mainstreet Equities, intends to make a profit while continuing to operate the facility amounts to “elder abuse” in the CCPA’s eyes. (Note that the report also makes use of the bogus term “financialization” for a twofer of leftist linguistic misdirection.)

“Organizational elder abuse” is an insult to the entire private sector and reminiscent of campaigns that seek to banish for-profit operators from other sectors dominated by high-cost, inefficient public-sector unions, such as health care and child care. The fact that actual elder abuse is a criminal act promotes the left-wing notion that even the most basic economic function of earning a profit is somehow illegal or immoral.

Wordplay aside, the private sector has a critical and successful role to play in the provision of assisted-living and long-term care for seniors in a number of provinces, as this and this C2C article described. And, judging by the long waiting lists for obtaining residency in many of these centres, seniors generally like what these companies are offering.

Accurate alternative: “Asset sold by a motivated seller to a willing buyer.”

Renoviction/Demoviction

Typical usage: “Renoviction is a huge source of housing loss.”

— Ontario Renoviction Report 2024 , ACORN Canada, February 2024

So far, the anti-capitalist terms evaluated have employed real English words that can be compared to their ordinary, historical or technical meanings. Here, we encounter complete gibberish. “Renoviction” or “demoviction” are portmanteaus invented to describe the situation in which a landlord evicts existing tenants in order to clear the way for a substantial renovation to an apartment that can then be re-let at higher rent, or tears down the entire building to put up something new, again to generate greater revenue.

While these processes are perfectly legal under certain conditions – and wholly understandable given the need for constant housing renewal – they have lately become nasty insults used by housing advocates and politicians to denigrate landlords generally. Some cities are even enacting bylaws to prevent both practices, erasing landlords’ property rights as owners and putting tenants in control of buildings they do not own. Such policies will clearly discourage further investment in housing at a time when the country desperately needs more and better houses. Investing one’s own money to improve the local stock of housing was once considered a good thing for everyone. Today, however, some politicians would rather let it all rot. The solution lies in recognizing landlords as the best-situated and most-effective custodians of the country’s rental stock.

Accurate alternative: “Improving Canada’s housing stock at no cost to taxpayers.”

Responsible Investing/Sustainable Investing/Impact Investing

Typical usage: “Responsible investment (RI) refers to the incorporation of environmental, social and governance factors (ESG) into the selection and management of investments. RI has boomed in recent years as investors have recognized the opportunity for better risk-adjusted returns, while at the same time, contributing to important social and environmental issues.”

— Responsible Investment Association website

“Responsible”, “sustainable” or “impact” investing holds that investors should weigh a variety of non-financial goals when choosing where to put their money. The goal is to “do good” with one’s investments by, for example, choosing green energy firms over those in the oil and natural gas sector. But adding moralistic objectives to one’s investment mix is “delusional”, writes Aswath Damodaran , a widely-respected guru of financial valuation at the Stern Business School at New York University. It is also another example of the twisted language of ideologically-driven alternatives, similar to “living wage” as discussed above. Having identified a practice as “responsible” investing, all other forms of investing – every stock, every bond, every mutual fund, every holding in every pensioner’s retirement fund – must implicitly be irresponsible .

While the vast majority of impact investors believe their ESG-flavoured decisions are costless – that is, have no effect on their overall investment returns – diverting their focus away from financial performance inevitably lowers returns because it constrains the list of potential investment opportunities, as Damodaran points out . It also leads investors to tolerate inefficiency and costly diversions among the “sustainable” companies they favour. As Damodaran observes, “After 15 years and trillions invested in its name, impact investing, as practiced now, has made little progress on the social and environmental problems that it purports to solve.” As he concludes, “Is it not time to try something different?” Pushback against these investment techniques is well underway in the U.S., and just beginning in Canada.

Accurate alternative: “Making less money while doing no good.”

Stakeholder Capitalism

Typical usage: “Stakeholder capitalism is not about politics. It is not a social or ideological agenda. It is not ‘woke.’ It is capitalism.”

— The Power of Capitalism , by Larry Fink, 2022 letter to Blackrock shareholders

Popularized by World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab , “stakeholder capitalism” involves corporations making decisions that may go against the best interests of their shareholders by pursuing the interests of other groups – or “stakeholders” – such as government regulators, community activists, fashionable global causes or the public at large. This can include accommodating the demands of organizations explicitly hostile to the company and its industry, as well as a multiplicity of other targets comprising social and environmental indicators unrelated to the firm’s core business. Climate-related “Net Zero” commitments by various corporations are an obvious current example.

“Under stakeholder capitalism, CEOs and boards are supposed to weigh all these different competing interests,” says Laurier finance professor McNally in an interview. “But they get to choose which ones – it could be gender equity or decarbonization or racial social justice. And this is a profoundly undemocratic process. The shareholders who actually own the company don’t have any say in it.” Not surprisingly, these corporate fetishes rarely come cheap, and there is evidence that stakeholder-focused companies earn lower returns than good old-fashioned shareholder-driven ones.

For the alternative viewpoint, McNally points to a famous 1970 New York Times essay by Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman. In it, Friedman argued that executives who allow political or social justice interests to distract them from pursuing their shareholders’ best interests – above all, safeguarding their capital – are “spending someone else’s money” on pet projects and should be considered guilty of theft. Nonetheless, advocates such as Fink are now promoting stakeholder capitalism – what Friedman called “pure and unadulterated socialism” – as the only true form of capitalism. It is a complete inversion of reality.

Accurate alternative: “Playing politics with other people’s money.”

The above list is obviously not exhaustive. Indeed, it is barely a beginning. The primary purpose of the Anti-Capitalist Dictionary is to remind readers that words matter and alert them to the widespread presence of corrupted, concocted or bogus terms in general usage. Calling wind turbines “green” or “sustainable” energy, to mention some additional possible entries, not only engenders positive feelings among many people, but influences their thinking about what these things actually are and how they work. It is thus useful that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, for example, now refers to wind and solar power as – entirely accurately – “intermittent and unreliable” . This draws attention to the fact they cannot be relied upon to serve as base-load power in the way that nuclear, natural gas-fired or hydroelectric facilities can and do. There is nothing sustainable about an energy source that cannot be trusted when needed.

Having identified a practice as ‘responsible’ investing, all other forms of investing – every stock, every bond, every mutual fund, every holding in every pensioner’s retirement fund – must implicitly be irresponsible. Tweet

Beyond these specific examples, the Anti-Capitalist Dictionary’s other purpose is to reveal the damage being done to fundamental economic concepts that are crucial to the flourishing of a democratic society. It has been proven time and again throughout history (and often at great cost) that markets – the free and open exchange of ideas, goods or services – are the best and most efficient method of determining values, assessing needs and allocating resources. Today, however, as in totalitarian regimes of the past, we are witnessing a determined effort to replace time-proven market mechanisms with systems that impose government interference and diktat as the operating devices.

One of the main tools for this revolution is language. In this way, landlords have become cold-hearted “renoviction” machines, corporations stand accused of earning “excessive net profits” at the expense of hapless families, capital investment in new housing – “financialization” – is to blame for Canada’s housing crisis, the legitimate sale of a building is “elder abuse”, heterodox thinkers are “denialists”, socialism is really capitalism, and so on down the rabbit hole. Words have become weapons aimed at destroying markets and individual freedoms. This must be resisted.

In his famous 1946 essay Politics and the English Language , George Orwell anticipated many of the linguistic tricks and falsehoods described above. “Political language,” he wrote, “is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one’s own habits.” The truth starts one word at a time.

Peter Shawn Taylor is senior features editor at C2C Journal . He lives in Waterloo, Ontario.

Source of main image: Shutterstock.

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