Etymology isn’t a reliable guide to what words mean now, but in a case like this one where there isn’t a universally agreed definition it seems like it might be worth a look.
Agreed.
The “-th” in “wealth” is the same as in growth, health, sloth (= slow-th), warmth, etc. And “weal” just means “wellbeing”; “weal” and “well” are originally the same word. So wealth is whatever confers or constitutes wellbeing. When the word “wealth” first existed, it was mostly pretty much synonymous with “wellbeing”.
Interesting! Thanks for explaining.
But it was always also able to mean, more specifically, “worldly” goods, valuable physical possessions, especially ones that you could exchange for other things you value.
Not to shoot the messenger but this is starting to feel like a pretty different thing from wellbeing to me.
less-central examples
Thanks for pointing to this idea of centrality. From Similarity Clusters: “A dictionary is best thought of, not as a book of Aristotelian class definitions, but a book of hints for matching verbal labels to similarity clusters, or matching labels to properties that are useful in distinguishing similarity clusters.”. That’s an idea that I needed to be reminded of and seems very relevant here. Wealth appears to be a term that doesn’t actually have a precise definition. Instead there are various concepts that kinda form clusters and have some distance to whatever is at the center, the prototypical example of wealth.
I’m leaning on the OED here, and here’s something informative: its sense 4.
Agreed.
Interesting! Thanks for explaining.
Not to shoot the messenger but this is starting to feel like a pretty different thing from wellbeing to me.
Thanks for pointing to this idea of centrality. From Similarity Clusters: “A dictionary is best thought of, not as a book of Aristotelian class definitions, but a book of hints for matching verbal labels to similarity clusters, or matching labels to properties that are useful in distinguishing similarity clusters.”. That’s an idea that I needed to be reminded of and seems very relevant here. Wealth appears to be a term that doesn’t actually have a precise definition. Instead there are various concepts that kinda form clusters and have some distance to whatever is at the center, the prototypical example of wealth.
Thanks for digging this up. Good to know.