Pronounced: KLER-ih-hyoo, noun
Notes: I have not heard of our word
Yesterday’s word
The word plutarchy means
- rule by the wealthy
- a wealthy ruling class
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
Background / Comments
I thought our word was related to Pluto, from Roman mythology, but that is wrong. I’ve never considered our word to be related to “Plutarch” (a Greek biographer); if you do, that is also wrong. Our word comes from Greek mythology – “Plutus” (more literally “Ploutos”), who was the god of riches. Our word is a combination of pluto- (wealth) and -archos (ruler).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 