magnate

EnglishEdit

Borrowed into late Middle English from Late Latin magnātēs, plural of magnās, from magnus (“great”), mid 15th c.^[1]^[2]

magnate (plural magnates)

Powerful industrialist; captain of industry.
- 2014, Jennifer Hayward, The Magnate's Manifesto, Harlequin (→ISBN), page 2:
  With a suitable amount of life experience under her belt, she sat down and conjured up the sexiest, most delicious Italian wine magnate she could imagine, had him make his biggest mistake, and gave him a wife on the run.
- 2015, Rod Judkins, The Art of Creative Thinking, Hachette UK (→ISBN)
  Sir Richard Branson is an English business magnate, best known as the founder of the multimillion-pound Virgin Group, which consists of more than four hundred companies.
I have decided to become an oil magnate, after spending quite some time reading the dictionary definition of the word magnate.
A person of rank, influence or distinction in any sphere.
- 1839 November 2, "Brindley in Manchester", New Moral World, page 857.
  […] but there is not an illiterate Justice of the Peace, or rural magnate in the form of a country squire, that would not detect such a man as an empirie at once, if he rested his claim to such an appointment on the score of his scholarship.

Powerful industrialist; captain of industry.

A person of rank, influence or distinction in any sphere.

^ Douglas Harper (2001–2022), “magnate”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
^ James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928), “Magnate”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume VI, Part 2 (M–N), London: Clarendon Press, OCLC 15566697, page 28, column 3.