Inventory that leaves the store without being paid for is, on the books, shrinkage. The word suggests a natural process, a sweater in hot water, and it covers shoplifting, employee theft, and clerical error in one soft noun so that the annual report never has to say “stolen.”

What makes this one worth an entry is the gap between the word and the practice. A company that reports “shrink” in the aggregate will, in the individual case, prosecute a teenager for a lipstick. The euphemism is for the shareholders; the plain word is saved for the defendant.

Mamet’s point about repackaged goods labeled “Improved” applies in reverse here. The retail dialect is fluent in making losses sound like physics: “markdowns,” “spoilage,” “shrink.” The words were chosen so that the quarterly call could proceed without a crime in it.