Affluentness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality of being wealthy encompasses both material wealth and the ability to provide abundant resources for oneself and others
2. A state characterized by financial abundance includes the possession of significant assets and a high standard of living
3. The condition of having ample wealth implies not just financial resources but also access to a variety of opportunities and advantages

Etymology: Affluentness is a plain compound: the adjective "affluent" with the suffix "-ness" attached. "Affluent" comes from Latin "affluere," meaning "to flow toward" or "to flow abundantly," so the root image is of wealth arriving in a stream. The suffix "-ness" is one of English's oldest and most productive noun-makers, descending from Old English "-nes," which turns an adjective into the name of its quality, so "kindness" is the state of being kind and "affluentness" is the state of being affluent. The suffix was used to form nouns from adjectives throughout the history of English, and it remains freely available, which is why new formations like this one can appear whenever a speaker wants a abstract noun from an adjective. The noun is therefore less an inherited or borrowed word than a transparent construction built from parts that were already in the language.

Synonyms: wealth, richness, opulence, prosperity, abundance

Antonyms: poverty, destitution, impoverishment, neediness, lack