The unfair practice of giving jobs or advantages to your family members instead of choosing the most qualified people. Nepotism in government means officials hire their relatives rather than the best candidates.
From Latin nepos (nephew) plus the suffix -ism. The word originated because medieval popes gave high positions to their nephews and relatives, and this pattern became common enough to get its own name.
The word literally comes from popes giving power to their nephews (nepos)—this happened so often in medieval Rome that it became the definitive example of unfair favoritism. That's wild: one job title in one place became so corrupt that it spawned an entire word describing systemic corruption!
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