millionaire (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/16/2012 07:30 PM, Baker, John wrote:
>         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?

"The one percent".

Joel



>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
> > -----------------------
> > 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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