Stagflation
Etymology
A portmanteau of stagnation and inflation, credited to the British politician Iain Macleod, who used it in a 1965 speech to Parliament describing "the best of both worlds" in reverse. The word gained wide currency during the oil shocks of the 1970s, when the condition it named actually arrived.
noun · /stag-FLAY-shun/
The unpleasant combination of a stagnant economy — high unemployment, little growth — together with rising prices.
What it names
It names the trap where the usual fixes conflict: cooling inflation tends to worsen unemployment, and boosting jobs tends to worsen inflation.
Example
The 1970s taught policymakers that stagflation leaves no easy lever to pull.
Related idea
Ordinary inflation usually rides alongside growth; stagflation is inflation paired with the opposite of growth.