favor bank
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.48 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A notional bank where favors (acts of goodwill in a relationship) are tallied up.
Example Sentences
- "“You ever hear of the Favor Bank?” “The Favor Bank? No.” “Well, everything in this building, everything in the criminal justice system in New York”—New Yawk—“operates on favors. Everybody does favors for everybody else. Every chance they get, they make deposits in the Favor Bank.[…]"
- "What is this Favor Bank?’ ‘It was an American writer who first mentioned it. It’s the most powerful bank in the world, and you’ll find it in every sphere of life.’"
- "Tom Hopkins, the well-known sales trainer and author, calls this the favor bank in How to Master the Art of Selling (1982). In every relationship, there is something called a favor bank. Whenever you do someone a favor, you are making a deposit in this bank."
- "Founders in a crisis call Altman first, relying on his knack for high-speed trading in the Valley’s favor bank[…]"
Etymology
Popularized in The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987).