wealthy
Noun pluralwealthies
Pluralwealthies
- 1Having a great deal of money, property, or valuable possessions.
The wealthy donor funded an entire wing of the hospital.
Wealthy investors snapped up the beachfront properties within days.
Similarrich, affluent, prosperous, well-off, moneyed
Oppositepoor, impoverished, destitute, needy
Note
The adjective is simply wealth with -y added, a pairing already made in Middle English welthy, while its Middle Dutch cognate meant "magnificent, luscious, lavish." It compares either way: wealthier and wealthiest, or more wealthy and most wealthy. It also takes an intensifying prefix, as in George Monbiot's ultra-wealthy (The Guardian Weekly, 2013), and after the it becomes the wealthy as a class.
- 2Rich people considered collectively, whether within a single society or across the world.
The wealthy increasingly shelter their assets in offshore accounts.
Charitable giving among the wealthy rose sharply last year.
Similarrich
Oppositepoor
Note
A noun made by putting the in front of the adjective, and it behaves like a plural: the wealthy pay, never the wealthy pays. It takes no plural ending of its own. To speak of one rich person you need the rare count noun or simply a wealthy person. The pattern stretches to the uberwealthy, set against the wealthy as a smaller and richer group.
- 3Abundant in quality or quantity; existing in large or generous amounts.
The manuscript is wealthy in marginal notes left by earlier readers.
This stretch of coastline is wealthy in seabird colonies during nesting season.
Similarrich, abundant, replete, full
Oppositepoor, lacking, deficient
Note
Here the riches are plenty of any kind rather than money. A close relative points the same way: Middle Dutch weldech, a cognate, meant "magnificent, luscious, lavish," which is nearer to abundance than to a bank balance. Used like this, the adjective usually takes in before whatever is plentiful (wealthy in marginal notes). That construction keeps it apart from the money sense.
Less common meaning
- 4Someone who possesses a great deal of money or property.
Ending tax cuts to wealthies would only increase tax revenues by $40 - $60 billion a year - about 20% of current deficit - so it's a waste of time.
2006, “Can the Democrats Deliver?”, in Washington Postit was possible for a group like the Libertarians to hope that a couple of weakminded wealthies might donate the seed money to get a campaign rolling.
1975, “A Real Presidential Choice Is Being Ignored”, in Evening IndependentOppositepauper
Note
Much rarer than the collective use, this count noun takes an article and a plural ending: a wealthy, two wealthies. Newspapers reached for it in the 1970s, and the Washington Post still prints wealthies in 2006. It often carries a breezy or mocking edge, as in weakminded wealthies and young wealthies. In careful writing, a wealthy person is the safer choice.
Her father reminded him that he wasn't a wealthy and needed to aim lower.
The film is a sardonic tale of envy among young wealthies of the pre-flapper era.
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Practice
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Origin
From Middle English welthy or welþi, equivalent to wealth plus the suffix -y. It is related to Middle Dutch weldech, weeldech, meaning magnificent, luscious, or lavish.