THE FIRST WORD

mammonism

PRONUNCIATION:

(MAM-uh-niz-uhm) 

MEANING:

noun: The greedy pursuit of riches.

ETYMOLOGY:

Via Latin and Greek, from Aramaic mamona (riches). Mammon was personified as a false god in the New Testament. Earliest documented use: 1843.

USAGE:

"The IOC is just another rapacious, money-making corporation like any other but it conceals all this behind the smokescreen of 'Olympian' values and sporting heroism. It's worse than any investment bank for mammonism and is seemingly oblivious to the supreme irony of the world's foremost sporting spectacle being sponsored by McDonald's and Coke."
Heroic Ideals; Euroweek (London, UK); Jul 27, 2012.