oligarch

noun

Etymology: From French oligarque, olygarche, from Late Latin oligarcha, from Ancient Greek ὀλιγάρχης (oligárkhēs). By surface analysis, olig- (“few”) + -arch (“ruler, leader”).

1. A member of an oligarchy; someone who is part of a small group that runs a country.
2. A very wealthy business owner who wields political power.

   “Millions of people were starving, while the oligarchs and their supporters were surfeiting on the surplus.”

   “Economic disaster loomed, as the rotting remains of the Soviet economy were exposed to free-market reforms, which brought inflation and the sale of state-owned assets at low prices to a new class of ultra-rich businessmen called "oligarchs," who made America's robber barons of the late nineteenth century look like Puritan preachers.”

3. A protoplanet formed during oligarchic accretion.

   “In the inner Solar System, only the asteroid Ceres was able to grow fast enough to become a dwarf planet, but in the outer Solar System huge numbers of icy bodies formed, ranging from pebbles to the oligarchs now recognized as dwarf planets.”