Wealth Is Well-Being With a -th on the End
Wealth is an abundance of money or possessions. It comes from weal, meaning well-being, and once meant welfare rather than riches.
Wealth is an abundance of money, property or resources. It was built from *weal*, an old word for well-being, plus the -th ending — so wealth originally meant welfare and happiness, not riches. The narrowing to money happened in the Middle Ages. *Commonwealth* preserves the older sense exactly: the common good, not the common money.
- Riches. *Inherited wealth.*
- An abundance. *A wealth of experience.*
- Well-being (archaic). *The public weal.*
- Wealthy — rich. *A wealthy family.*
- Commonwealth — the common good, or a political association. *The Commonwealth.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | wealth | Great wealth. |
| Adjective | wealthy | A wealthy donor. |
| Root | weal | The common weal. |
| Compound | commonwealth | The Commonwealth. |
| Related | well | Well-being. |
- The wealth was concentrated in a few families.Money.
- A wealth of detail in the archive.Abundance, not money.
- Commonwealth means the common good.The older sense.
Wealth in phrases
- A wealth of — a large quantity of anything valuable
- Wealth gap — the difference between rich and poor
- Redistribution of wealth — a political term
- Wealth of nations — Adam Smith's 1776 title, using the older broad sense
- Weal and woe — an archaic pairing meaning good times and bad
Middle English *welthe*, from *wele*, well-being, on the model of *health*. The sense of riches became dominant by the 1400s.
What does commonwealth mean?
The common good or public welfare. It later named political associations, including the Commonwealth of Nations.
Did wealth once mean happiness?
It meant well-being and prosperity broadly. The narrowing to money came in the Middle Ages.