Mammonite

English

Etymology

From Mammon +‎ -ite.

Noun

Mammonite (plural Mammonites)

1. One devoted to the service of Mammon, or the acquisition of wealth.
   • 1855, Charles Kingsley, Glaucus; or, The Wonders of the Shore, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, pages 41–42:

     And last, but not least, the perfect naturalist should have in him the very essence of true chivalry, namely, self-devotion; the desire to advance, not himself and his own fame or wealth, but knowledge and mankind. He should have this great virtue; and in spite of many shortcomings, (for what man is there who liveth and sinneth not?) naturalists as a class have it, to a degree which makes them stand out most honourably in the midst of a self-seeking and mammonite generation, inclined to value everything by its money price, its private utility.

Derived terms

• Mammonitish

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “Mammonite”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)