Media News

Phrases that Fortune invented, from trophy wife to hedge fund

February 4, 2025

Posted by Chris Roush

Rachel Ventresca of Fortune writes about eight iconic phrases that the 95-year-old magazine made popular.

Ventresca writes, “Yes, Fortune is old. The ’95-year-old startup’ is technically a member of the Silent Generation, predating the invention of not just the internet but also ZIP codes and crash test dummies, not to mention most of the Fortune 500 companies we cover. In fact, we’ve been covering monumental business events and the culture of capitalism for so long that we’ve forgotten some of our contributions to it. Take the phenomenon of ‘groupthink’ or the curious midcentury investment vehicle the ‘hedge fund.’ Fortune didn’t invent either of these things, but we were first to name them.

“But how does one invent a word or a phrase, anyway?

“With the flick of a wrist and copious time spent in corner offices, on factory floors, and anywhere else business leaders congregate, Fortune has been generating timeless phrases in our global vernacular for decades. Founded in the wake of the Great Depression, the magazine has persisted through 16 presidents, five contemporary market crashes, and a global pandemic. That makes us just a few months senior to Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha himself, whose popular nickname may even have originated in Fortune—it was bestowed by former Fortune senior editor-at-large Allan Sloan. However, Sloan is pretty sure that he coined the moniker while writing a June 1985 article for one of our distinguished competitors.”

Read more here.

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