English Explanatory Dictionary

Homo economicus

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. A human being regarded as a rational and narrowly self-interested actor capable of making judgments in order to attain its own particular goals.
noun
  1. Alternative form of Homo economicus.

Word forms

Homo economicus homo oeconomicus

Etymology

A pseudotaxonomic name, by analogy with Homo sapiens. The earlier term economic man was used for the first time in the late nineteenth century by critics of John Stuart Mill's work on political economy.

Synonyms

economic human economic man

Related words

Homo idioticus homo negronus homo sovieticus Homo superior Homo superioris rational choice theory rational egoism
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