millionaire (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Baker, John]

        Somewhat more surprisingly, English lacks a common word meaning "a wealthy individual."  To address this shortfall, we have pressed "millionaire" into service.  But "millionaire" has a crucial difficulty:  The word "million" plays an obvious role and must somehow be accounted for.  In earlier days, there was no problem, since the possession of a million dollars meant wealth, and indeed not inconsiderable wealth.  Not so today, thanks to inflation (and, to a lesser extent, to a general rise in the standard of living).  Redefining "millionaire" as someone with an income of at least a million dollars a year allows us to retain this useful word, without the cognitive dissonance that would be required by an insistance that "millionaire" has nothing to do with "million."

        I haven't bothered trying to think of less common words with the "wealthy individual" meaning, though I have no doubt that they exist.  Is one of them waiting in the wings for its opportunity?


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2012 7:15 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: millionaire (UNCLASSIFIED)

Strangely, English appears to lack a word for "one who earns at least a
million dollars a year every year, or nearly a million year after year,
until he has at least a million in capital at his disposal."

That's how I've been interpreting the word in the current context, but
possibly I've missed something.

JL

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 5:07 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      millionaire (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
>
> I always thought a millionaire was a person who had a million dollars,
> and the OED tends to confirm that.
>
> Recent media discussion about the "Buffet Rule" (to raise income tax
> rates on wealthy) talks about millionaires in such a way that only makes
> sense if a millionaire is one who earns a million dollars within a year.
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>

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