private-wire house
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.34 in modern English
27
Scrabble Score
16
Letters
4
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A brokerage company with a telegraph line, telephone line, or electronic communication network.
Canadian usage; American usage; Obsolete
Example Sentences
- "All the private-wire houses were active on the selling side, those most talked of in connection with the Wall Street bull interest being the most active."
- "Commission men, as a rule, will not accept discretionary orders. Their risk is great enough when directions are explicit. The following is the eloquent plea made, in a letter to a private-wire house, …"
- "Edward Leland of the firm of Leland Ware, which in its line did the biggest private-wire business in the country, was expelled from the Chicago Stock Exchange today on the general charge of indulging in methods detrimental to the interests and contrary to the rules of the institution of which he had been a member only a year."
Etymology
1894, due to these brokerage companies owning or leasing telegraph lines (which occurred since 1873), so that market information could be transmitted more quickly.
Usage
Inflected Forms
private-wire houses (plural)
private wire house (alternative)
Phrases
wire house