James Buchanan Brady

9.5

A rich American businessman known for collecting diamonds and spending a lot of money

proper noun

: James Buchanan Brady

The museum features a collection of diamond-studded items once owned by James Buchanan Brady.

Examples

James Buchanan Brady amassed great wealth as a financier and became known for his lavish spending.
Many stories are told about James Buchanan Brady and his extravagant appetite and love of jewelry.
Many people remember James Buchanan Brady for his extravagant lifestyle.
Did James Buchanan Brady really own over 20,000 diamonds?
James Buchanan Brady was famous for his extravagant lifestyle and a collection of more than 20,000 diamonds.
Stories about James Buchanan Brady often highlight his love for jewelry and his lavish spending habits.
The lavish lifestyle of James Buchanan Brady made him a well-known figure in early 20th century America.

Surface Forms

James Buchanan Brady main

Morphology

James + Buchanan + Brady

This is a full proper name referring to a particular historical person; the constituent items are personal names with no compositional semantics that indicate his biography. A B1 learner who knows the names cannot derive that he was a wealthy U.S. financier known as 'Diamond Jim Brady' without prior cultural or encyclopedic knowledge, so the expression is not transparently interpretable.

Etymology

James Buchanan Brady was a rich American who loved jewelry. One popular story says he wore so many diamonds at once that people began to call him 'Diamond Jim Brady', and that clear image of a man covered in diamonds explains why the name came to mean a very wealthy, flashy person.