mammonism

American  

[mam-uh-niz-uhm] / ˈmæm əˌnɪz əm /

noun

1. the greedy pursuit of riches.

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Other Word Forms

• mammonist
  noun
• mammonistic
  adjective
• mammonite
  noun

Etymology

Origin of mammonism

First recorded in 1815–25; mammon + -ism

Explanation

Mammonism is the greedy pursuit of material riches: chasing money and wealth above all else. The word mammon comes from the Hebrew word for "money," and it is famously used in the Bible in a quote usually translated as "You cannot serve both God and mammon." Over time, literary traditions personified Mammon as a demon of avarice who tempted people through greed. But mammonism doesn't usually mean the literal act of worshipping this hypothetical demon; instead, it just means an obsession with material gain and the accumulation of riches.

Example Sentences

Mammonism has gained hold of the United States today.

From Time Magazine Archive

Working Aristocracy A poor Working Mammonism getting itself 'strangled in the partridge-nets of an Unworking Dilettantism,' and bellowing dreadfully, and already black in the face, is surely a disastrous spectacle!

From Past and Present by Carlyle, Thomas

Gospel of Mammonism Heaven and Hell, often as the words are on our tongue, got to be fabulous or semi-fabulous for most of us.

From Past and Present by Carlyle, Thomas

And it is profoundly to be hoped that this book may do for the prevailing Mammonism what ’Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ did for slavery.”

From The Backwoodsmen by Roberts, Charles George Douglas, Sir

Gospel of Dilettantism Mammonism at least works; but 'Go gracefully idle in Mayfair,' what does or can that mean?—Impotent, insolent Donothingism in Practice and Saynothingism in Speech.

From Past and Present by Carlyle, Thomas