Interesting words, issue three

I am going through the words from the beginning of my list, so these are older words, not the most recently added ones. I think I'll also use these posts as a way to get more in the habit (again) of writing for public consumption on a daily basis.

monopsony: Economics term. It describes a market structure where a single buyer has significant control over the market. It is the opposite of a monopoly. It can be seen in labor markets, where companies buy the labor that workers sell. If there is only a single company to work for in a given location, a monopsony exists in the labor market there. Pure monopsonies are rare in real life; oligopsonies are more likely to exist. The military has a monopsony over soldiers. A public school district has a near-monopsony over the labor market of teachers (allowing for the existence of some private schools). This link provides a couple of examples of monopsonies in product markets. Tangent: One of my history teachers in high school also taught AP Economics classes and now I kind of wish maybe I had chosen to take an economics class then.

soffit: Architectural term describing the horizontal, underside portion of any building element (such as overhangs or staircases). More specifically, refers to the underside of a roof's eaves. Apparently, it can also be used to describe the space between the ceiling and wall-mounted cabinets. 

Related word: eavesdropping, which comes from how people would stand under the eaves of a house to listen to what was being said inside. The Spanish phrase for "eavesdrop" is "escuchar a escondidas" which translates to "to listen secretly." The Swedish verb for eavesdropping is "tjuvlyssna" which translates to "thief-listen." If you were eavesdropping in the traditional sense, you would have a view of the building's soffits. The building's soffits were visible from the windows on the top floor. 

aleatory: Latin etymology. It means random or dependent on chance. Whether the snacks I want at the grocery store will be in stock or not seems aleatory from the customer's perspective. The winner of a raffle is determined in an aleatory manner. The selection available at thrift stores seems completely aleatory.  

argot: From French (1860), meaning "the jargon of Paris rogues and thieves" but can also be more broadly synonymous for any sort of jargon or specialized language. "Episepalous" is part of botany's argot.

episepalous: Botanical term, "of stamens. : growing on or adnate to the sepals." It's a little too esoteric for me to fully understand. It has to do with flowers.