Plutography
[ploo-TOG-rə-fee]
Part of speech: noun
Origin: American English, 1980s
1.
Depiction, presentation, or coverage of the rich, particularly the lifestyles they enjoy.
Examples of Plutography in a sentence
"From “Dynasty” to the “Real Housewives” series to “Succession,” viewers are obsessed with watching plutography on television."
"Plutography is a hallmark of classic American literature, as the lives of the rich and famous have been featured in works such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” and Henry James’ “The Portrait of a Lady.”"
About Plutography
American journalist and author Tom Wolfe coined “plutography” in the early 1980s by combining the prefix “pluto-” (referring to wealth) with the suffix “-graphy,” suggesting the representation of a thing.
Did you Know?
Reporter and author Tom Wolfe coined the word “plutography” to describe one of the key concerns of the 1980s, an era fascinated with wealth. Wolfe reported on and wrote fiction about the lives of America’s richest people, most notably in his 1987 novel, “The Bonfire of the Vanities.” Earlier in his career, Wolfe was a standard-bearer of the late 1960s movement called “New Journalism,” in which journalists inserted themselves into the story and shared their own thoughts and feelings in a literary style that did more than just report the facts. Wolfe was perhaps best known for his 1979 book “The Right Stuff,” which charted the lives and careers of high-speed aircraft pilots who were drafted into NASA’s space program.
