millionaire (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Victor Steinbok]

It's a good shrubbery... [the following is not meant to be criticism--at
least, not of Garson]

Two minor points--"nabob" has not been the same since Spiro Agnew. I
suspect, if you ask an average monolingual American what it means,
"wealthy individual" is going to be very low on the list of responses.

On the other hand, "trust fund baby/child" has been in circulation for
some time--and exactly with the connotation that "tycoon" and
"plutocrat" cannot offer. To make things more interesting, you can now
hear just "trust fund" as a description of a wealthy individual (no
longer just the youngin').

Also, for those who think that "multimillionaire" has too many syllables
and "billionaire" sounds like a sell-out, there is always the generic
"[ga]zillionaire".

Much of the rest of the list looks like a good source for a
Chinglish-generating dictionary--and the reason why I try to avoid
single-sourcing dictionaries. Brahmin is synonymous to "blue-blood" and
has nothing to do with wealth. Robber baron is the precursor to tycoon.
Brat pack is completely irrelevant. Big Cheese is the status, not the
wealth, so closer, perhaps to oligarch. Financier is the old-fashioned
investor (or banker). The glitterati is a reflection of social status
that need not be synonymous with wealth--if that's acceptable, we might
as well include "aristocrat". If we're going to go that route, we should
add Big Spender, whale (a rich casino patron or a target for a con),
flat-out "baron"--without a modifier, richie-rich. Others--like
capitalist, man of substance, man of distinction, gentleman farmer--are
essentially outdated 19th century terms that might still be in
operation, but not nearly with the same meaning they had 150 years ago
(capitalist? really?).

At some point, we essentially get into the "40 words for snow"
discussion--there are many marginally relevant examples, each with its
own specialized connotation.

     VS-)

On 4/17/2012 3:34 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
> These are not ideal synonyms, e.g., some are sexist, but they provide
> entertainment (from sundry online thesauri):
>
> man of wealth, man of means, capitalist, tycoon, rich man, moneyed
> man, man of substance, plutocrat, Croesus, nabob, Midas, Dives, man of
> millions, moneybags, tippybob, doughbag, butter-and-egg man, big-money
> man, money baron, robber baron, bankroll, financier, billionaire, fat
> cat, big cheese, multimillionaire, wealthy man, parvenu, nouveau,
> nouveau riche, Brahmin, brat pack, burgher, champagne socialist,
> dowager, gentleman farmer, the glitterati, the haves, richling

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