old money
1
5.5
- noun
- /oʊld ˈmʌni/
:
dinero antiguo
- She was raised in an old money household that valued tradition and elegance.
- come from old money
But every time I'm thinking old money, aesthetics, quite conservative, trying too much.
- But every time I'm thinking old money, aesthetics, quite conservative, trying too much.
- So you're chasing old money with new, which starts to sound like something else.
- And it, and look, then you could justify it by saying, look, we're using old money, but it is a difference from what we said.
Examples
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This is where the terms old money and new money become so important.
Blog text (9) -
And she gets selected by this really, really old money rich family to come and live with them.
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But I did a video recently on the old money versus new money.
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And one of the things I've noticed is old money moves different.
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Theirs was old money.
Fiction book (1993) -
Many old money families have maintained their wealth and social status for generations.
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John's grand estate was a symbol of his old money background, reflecting years of inherited wealth.
Synonyms
5
3.6
A life starting in a rich family with many advantages
2
4.3
Money or property you receive from family when they die
People from families who have been rich for many generations
Surface Forms
Morphology
A B1 learner who knows 'old' and 'money' can plausibly infer a sense of long-established or longstanding wealth from the literal combination, so part of the meaning is derivable. However, the phrase specifically evokes inherited family wealth and social-class connotations (‘‘people/families’’ and status) that are culturally loaded and not fully predictable from the constituents alone, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Old money may come from the image of old money kept in a family chest for years, with worn bills and coins passed from parent to child. So it means 'wealth that has been inherited by a family over many generations'.