millionaire (UNCLASSIFIED)
Jonathan Lighter
wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Tue Apr 17 23:43:46 UTC 2012
I think the underlying difficulty is primarily that "persons who make at
least a million dollars a year" takes too long to write or say.
"Millionaire" is shorter. "Tycoon" is shorter still, but its associations
with great wealth, economic power, and conspicuous consumption may make it
seem a bit slanted. It may sound slightly dated as well - like "playboy."
JL
On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 7:31 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject: Re: millionaire (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 4/17/2012 03:22 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
> >Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> >Caveats: NONE
> >
> >This document:
> >
> >http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/09in05tr.xls
> >
> >is only current through 2009, but seems to say that the floor of income
> >for the top 1% was $343k in that year.
>
> So the term we want is "multi-thousandaire".
>
> Joel
>
>
>
>
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> >Behalf Of
> > > Joel S. Berson
> > > Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 11:25 AM
> > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > > Subject: Re: millionaire (UNCLASSIFIED)
> > >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >----------------------
> > > -
> > > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > > Subject: Re: millionaire (UNCLASSIFIED)
> > >
> >------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >------
> > > -
> > >
> > > At 4/17/2012 11:16 AM, Baker, John wrote:
> > > >The one percent refers to the affluent segment of society generally.
> > >
> > > We ought to be able to say from the statistics what yearly income is
> > > the threshold for the 99th percentile. For the most recent year for
> > > which the data are available.
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> >Caveats: NONE
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list