as a plute
- idiom
- Offensive
- Ever since the promotion, he started acting as a plute and lost touch with his old friends.
Examples
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She spoke as a plute when discussing luxury vacations most people couldn't afford.
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Politicians who live as a plute often struggle to relate to ordinary voters.
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He acts as a plute.
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She lives as a plute in her mansion.
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After getting a big inheritance, she began to behave as a plute, ignoring the struggles of those less fortunate.
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Living as a plute, he often made decisions that seemed disconnected from the reality of average citizens.
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When he started buying expensive cars and designer clothes, he was clearly living as a plute.
How Wealthy
Surface Forms
Morphology
as + a + plute
The phrase uses a clear compositional pattern 'as a' + noun, so if a learner knows 'plute' as 'a wealthy/plutocratic person' the meaning 'in the manner of a wealthy person' follows directly from the constituents. 'Plute' is informal/slang and may be rare, but the syntactic and semantic composition is transparent and predictable to learners who know the constituent meanings.
Etymology
As a plute comes from the longer word plutocrat, a name for very rich people, and was shortened to plute. Saying someone acts as a plute paints the picture of them living or speaking like the rich, so it means 'in the manner of someone who is wealthy or privileged'.