Talk:rich kid

RFD discussion: February–April 2018

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rich kid

Sum of parts, I think. — SGconlaw (talk) 17:18, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

Sometimes yes, but not always. A (rich kid) is not necessarily a (rich) + (kid) ("kid who is rich"), rather a privileged and stereo-typically spoiled youngster. The kid isn't rich, his or her parents/grandparents/etc. likely are. The stress is different when pronounced /ˈrɪt͡ʃkɪd/ vs. /rɪt͡ʃ.ˈkɪd/ Leasnam (talk) 17:23, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

Can be compared to poor boy, maybe (?) Leasnam (talk) 17:31, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

I don't think rich kid becomes non-SoP just because the kid is not literally rich because the wealth is owned by his or her parents. That seems an unrealistic view of how language works. The kid in question is rich because the parents lavish him or her with material goods. Moreover, I don't think one would use the term to describe a child who is spoiled if he or she wasn't privileged or wealthy. Thus, I'm still not seeing why this isn't SoP. — SGconlaw (talk) 08:16, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

• Delete. Yes, SOP. (@Leasnam, I'm not buying into a pronunciation difference. As for poor boy, that term has a 2nd sense of "submarine sandwich"; otherwise it would be SOP too.) -- · (talk) 19:26, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

The stress difference also applies to "cool kid", "bad kid", "good kid"... Equinox ◑ 19:29, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

Keep -@Equinox, Would you like to "buy into" the alternative form rich-kid, which is used synonymously, and also as an attributive ? Leasnam (talk) 20:00, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

No, I don't understand why someone would put a hyphen between adjective and noun like that. Equinox ◑ 20:10, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

If you prefer, we can label it "US"... Leasnam (talk) 20:13, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

I don't really like your implication! I also don't see why an American would put a hyphen between adjective and noun like that. Equinox ◑ 06:27, 27 February 2018 (UTC)

Keep, as per Leasnam - Sonofcawdrey (talk) 05:38, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

Delete; "rich" is not necessarily all about the numbers in your bank account, and rich child/children/girl/boy/student, etc. all follow the same pattern.--Prosfilaes (talk) 21:33, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

Okay, now that you put it this way I can see that we do not need rich boy, rich girl, rich man, etc. Leasnam (talk) 22:32, 23 February 2018 (UTC)

Keep. In my experience, "rich kid" is not replaceable with "rich boy", "rich girl", "rich guy", etc. It has a very specific connotation of being spoiled, and nearly always implies some degree of jealousy on the part of the speaker. It's often used in response to hearing about someone's (expensive) experience or something they've been given. For example:

Speaker 1: "Did you hear Fred got a Mercedes for his birthday?"

Speaker 2 mutters: "Rich kid."

OR:

Speaker 1: "Dude, you should go to Hawaii some time."

Speaker 2: "I wish. Not everyone's a rich kid like you."

Note here that one doesn't have to be "rich" by most standards to go to Hawaii, so "rich kid" can be used to express jealousy at anyone with a standard of living that is higher than one's own. I should also mention that "rich kid" is always stressed on the first syllable, in my experience. The term clearly evolved from an SOP adjective-noun pair, but in my generation, at least, there is a specific denotation that does not exist in phrases like "rich boy", "rich man", or "rich people." Andrew Sheedy (talk) 20:20, 17 March 2018 (UTC)

Delete per Prosfilaes, IMO. - -sche (discuss) 21:52, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

I totally agree with Andrew Sheedy, and change my vote back to keep. There are clearly connotations not carried by SOP [rich] + [kid], and is similar to good guy, bad guy, where it conveys a type of individual Leasnam (talk) 04:49, 19 March 2018 (UTC)

Keep. I don't think anybody has mentioned that it was nominated for WOTD on 27 October last year, but hasn't been featured yet. DonnanZ (talk) 21:23, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

I don't think that's a reason for keeping the term if it's SoP. It won't be featured so long as it's under RFD. — SGconlaw (talk) 20:43, 30 March 2018 (UTC)

Comment: Is rich kid only used to refer to children or young people, or can the term be applied to middle-aged or elderly people as well? If so, that might be a ground for not regarding it as SoP. — SGconlaw (talk) 20:43, 30 March 2018 (UTC)

• Keep, in the line of Leasnam and Andrew Sheedy. It seems to me that this term is only used in the aforementioned non-SoP sense as a mild perjorative--well demonstrated in Andrew's examples above. I also second--well, third, I guess--the importance of the stress placement. A bluebird is not just a blue bird, and the fact that the former (as with "rich kid", etc.) is spoken trochaically and not spondaically betells that it's a single semantic unit. --SanctMinimalicen (talk) 22:04, 30 March 2018 (UTC)
• According to Oxford, (US informal, depreciative) A child or young adult from a wealthy or privileged family. Earliest use found in the Galveston Daily News, late 19th century. DonnanZ (talk) 11:12, 31 March 2018 (UTC)
  • Passed: no consensus for deletion. — SGconlaw (talk) 02:57, 12 April 2018 (UTC)