Mammonism

Word of the Day for Thursday, February 16, 2012

mammonism \MAM-uh-niz-uhm\, noun:

The greedy pursuit of riches.

We will bring to mind a young man or young woman bitterly awakened from a fancy dream of accomplishment, action or glory, forced instead to come to terms with a considerably reduced status, a betrayed love, and a hideously bourgeois world of crass mammonism and philistine taste.
-- Rudyard Kipling, Kim

Claiming mutual “affection and confidence” with his collaborating reader whom he expects to agree, Dickens also indicts the false religion of Mammonism.
-- Linda M. Lewis, Dickens, His Parables, and His Readers

Mammonism is an odd combination of Aramaic and Greek. The word mammon meant wealth in Aramaic, and the suffix -ism forms a noun from a verb, as in criticism and plagiarism.

With thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/