Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In political economics, a term suggested by Professor V. Pareto as a substitute for ‘utility,’ as used in political economy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Economic satisfaction.
  • noun The ability to please another.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Neetu Chandak of Seneca Falls, N.Y., spelled the economic term "ophelimity" as if she were asking a question, then exclaimed "Yes!" and raised her arms when told she had spelled the word correctly.

    Gazette.com : 2009

  • Neetu Chandak of Seneca Falls, N.Y., spelled the economic term "ophelimity" as if she were asking a question, then exclaimed "Yes!" and raised her arms when told she had spelled the word correctly.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com 2009

  • She correctly spelled her first word in the finals, "ophelimity".

    News Channel 9: Local News 2009

  • But soon thereafter it was proved that even this stronger axiom does not entail the existence of an ophelimity function.

    Dictionary of the History of Ideas NICHOLAS GEORGESCU-ROEGEN 1968

  • The result is that choice no longer yields indifference lines and hence cannot be represented by an ophelimity index.

    Dictionary of the History of Ideas NICHOLAS GEORGESCU-ROEGEN 1968

  • Unfortunately, even “ophelimity,” the term coined by Vilfredo Pareto to cleanse the terminology of any vernacular overtones, did not prevail.

    Dictionary of the History of Ideas NICHOLAS GEORGESCU-ROEGEN 1968

  • Today the notion of an ordinal utility dominates consumer theory, the central problem of which is how to derive an ophelimity function from directly observable budget data.

    Dictionary of the History of Ideas NICHOLAS GEORGESCU-ROEGEN 1968

  • To this transparent definition, Samuelson added only an equally transparent axiom: If a budget reveals that the basket A is preferred to B, no budget can reveal that B is preferred to A. Samuelson claimed that this axiom alone suffices for deriving by integration the indifference varieties and hence for constructing an ophelimity function.

    Dictionary of the History of Ideas NICHOLAS GEORGESCU-ROEGEN 1968

Comments

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  • n. Ability to please sexually; ability to satisfy. (from The Phrontistery)

    November 16, 2008

  • Affluence is happiness' mimicry.

    To highlight the hidden asymmetry

    They've coined a new word

    You might not have heard:

    The useful but awkward ophelimity.

    January 13, 2017