Learn English – Origin of the phrase “filthy rich”
etymology
What is the origin of the phrase "filthy rich"?
Best Answer
As the link to Phrase Finder above explains, this phrase evolved from the phrase filthy lucre from the 1500s. Here's what Etymonline has on lucre:
lucre (n.)
late 14c., from L. lucrum "gain, advantage, profit; wealth, riches," from PIE root **lau*- "gain, profit" (cf. Gk. apo-lanein "to enjoy," Goth. launs, Ger. lohn "wages, reward," and possibly Skt. lotam, lotram "booty"). Filthy lucre (Tit. i:11) is Tyndale's rendering of Gk. aischron kerdos.
As Phrase Finder explains:
Following on the the term "filthy lucre", money became known by the slang term "the filthy", and it isn't a great leap from there to the rich being called the "filthy rich". This was first used as a noun phrase meaning "rich people; who have become so by dishonourable means".
Phrase Finder claims a 1920s origin, but the two words can be found together in print from the early 1800s. This, however, is the earliest example I can find of it being used as a set phrase rather than as a description of rich people who are physically dirty. Here's a clip from A Certain Rich Man by William Allen White, 1909 (date check):
And a final point worth noting from Phrase Finder:
As time went on the negative associations have softened somewhat. It has become to mean "extremely rich" rather than "dishonourably rich", although there may still be a trace of an unfavourable implication associated with it.
Googling further, I found this quote from "The Dictionary of Clichés" by James Rogers:
penny for your thoughts — "What's on your mind? (Usually said to someone who is looking pensive.) The saying is from a time when the British penny was worth a significant sum. In 1522, Sir Thomas More wrote (in 'Four Last Things'): 'It often happeth, that the very face sheweth the mind walking a pilgrimage, in such wise that other folk sodainly say to them a peny for your thought.'"
There's no agreed derivation of the expression 'hunky-dory'.
It is American and the earliest example of it in print that I have found is from a collection of US songs, George Christy's Essence of Old Kentucky, 1862.
We do know that 'hunky-dory' wasn't conjured from nowhere but was preceded by earlier words, i.e. 'hunkey', meaning 'fit and healthy' and 'hunkum-bunkum', which had the same meaning as 'hunky-dory'. 'Hunkey' was in use in the USA by 1861, when it was used in the title of the Civil War song A Hunkey Boy Is Yankee Doodle. 'Hunkum-bunkum' is first recorded in the US sporting newspaper The Spirit of The Times, November 1842.
Best Answer
As the link to Phrase Finder above explains, this phrase evolved from the phrase filthy lucre from the 1500s. Here's what Etymonline has on lucre:
As Phrase Finder explains:
Phrase Finder claims a 1920s origin, but the two words can be found together in print from the early 1800s. This, however, is the earliest example I can find of it being used as a set phrase rather than as a description of rich people who are physically dirty. Here's a clip from A Certain Rich Man by William Allen White, 1909 (date check):
And a final point worth noting from Phrase Finder: