millionaire
(mɪljəˈnɛə(r))
Formerly also in Fr. form.
[a. F. millionnaire, f. million: see million.]
1. a. A person possessed of a ‘million of money’, as a million pounds, dollars, francs, etc.; a person of great wealth.
| 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey i. ix, Were I the son of a Millionaire, or a noble, I might have all. 1830 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) I. 225 He was what the French call a millionnaire. 1853 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) III. xiv. 254 Mrs. Stowe, from the poorest of the poor, is become quite a millionaire. |
b. quasi-adj. Possessing a million of money.
| 1865 Sat. Rev. 11 Nov. 614 A few millionaire families. |
c. Millionaires' Row: a street containing the residences of very rich people.
| 1950 ‘J. Guthrie’ Is this what I Wanted? iii. 56 Charles drove off past the park, the Broad Walk and Millionaire's Row. 1954 ‘N. Blake’ Whisper in Gloom iii. 43 [The Bentley]..swept through the doorway of ‘Millionaires' Row’. 1964 B. Wynne Spies Within iv. 37 What about their radio, in ‘Millionaires' Row’? 1972 Guardian 19 Dec. 11/1 My Gozan friend had ragged, empty pockets..but he lived on millionaires' row. |
2. Used attrib. of a town with more than a million population.
| 1936 C. B. Fawcett in Salamon & Kuchar Mélanges de Géogr. offerts à V. {Shook}vambera 52 A ‘millionaire-city’ is to be understood as a conurbation which contains at least one million inhabitants. 1958 D. L. Linton in Geography XLIII. 258 The emergence of millionaire cities and even five-million cities in tropical countries is now widespread and continuing. 1961 Land Use in Urban Environment (Univ. of Liverpool, Dept. Civic Design) 11 The great concentration of population, housing, offices and factories in the millionaire cities. |
Hence millioˈnairedom, the condition of being a millionaire. millioˈnairess, a female millionaire. millioˈnairish a., of or pertaining to a millionaire. millioˈnairism, the existence or rule of millionaires as a characteristic of a social system.
| 1881 J. Payn Grape from a Thorn xiii, Even though he married an heiress or even a Millionairess. 1887 Atlantic Monthly LX. 222 Stuffs which none but an empress or a millionairess would dare to look at. 1888 Pall Mall G. 8 Feb. 4/2 The schoolboy of to-day, with his millionairish ideas of pocket-money. c 1890 A. Murdoch Yoshiwara Episode 23 He had not as yet struck the path that leads unto millionairedom. 1891 Harper's Mag. Jan. 320/2 Our political turmoil, our demagogism, our millionairism. 1906 L. Bell Carolina Lee 38 You'll have to go on being a millionairess, whether you will or no. 1958 [see beerage]. 1971 Nature 17 Dec. 377/1 Mrs Mary Lasker, a New York millionairess and philanthropist. 1973 Daily Tel. 29 Oct. 15/4 We could be millionairesses if we were concerned only with money. |