I can understand the saying "dirt poor", but where did "filthy rich" originate?
473222
There seems to be no etymology for the phrase, but it's likely either:\n\n(1) The person became rich through "filthy" ways -- monopolies, bribery, underground activities, etc.\n(2) The person is so wealthy that they no longer care about moral issues; s/he has become morally "filthy".\n(3) "Filthy" is just being used as a theatrical adjective, like the way that "phat" means "cool" and that "the bomb" means "the best".
908495
Hey! haha dung, among other four letter words, is literally a 'dirty' word. Here are many variations in definition: \n\n-fertilize or dress with dung; "you must dung the land"\n-droppings: fecal matter of animals\n-defecate; used of animals \nwordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn\n\n[dung] animal waste (excrement).\nmembers.aol.com/YESedu/glossary.html\nThe uses of dung were two-fold—as manure and as fuel. The manure consisted either of straw steeped in liquid manure, (Isaiah 25:10) or the sweepings, (Isaiah 5:25) of the streets and roads, which were carefully removed from about the houses, and collected in heaps outside the walls of the towns at fixed spots—hence the dung-gate at Jerusalem—and thence removed in due course to the fields. ...\n\nwww.ccel.org/ccel/smith_w/bibledict.d.html\n\nThe excrement of an animal. Also called scat.\n\nwww.longleafalliance.org/teachers/teacherkit/glossary.htm\n\nManure. Sometimes it is real estate, and at other times personal property. When collected in a heap, it is personal estate; when spread out-on the land, it becomes incorporated in it, and it is then real estate. Vide Manure.\n\nwww.new-york-lawyer.ws/law-dictionary/drawing.htm\n\nI sure hope that helps! ☃✔✪
973789
Inner city rough and poor neighborhoods were referred to as the "Ghetto".    Used alot in the 60's and 70's really.   I think today we have extended the word to mean things that are distasteful.....I noticed young people using it that way.....I see even on this site referring to this and that as ghetto.\nSo there you go....the meaning has changed over the generations.
675390
I believe I can help here...I recently read a story from Kevin Sites Hot Zone web that told a story about Haitians who eat "mud pies".  The two links below give the original story, AND the blog that resulted from the overwhelming interest in it.  I hope this helps you understand a bit better.\n\nIf you read the entire blog (the second link), you'll see that there are references to Kenya and the tradition of eating "dirt".
729046
=the poor working class tends tends to be more generous because life has always been a tougher challenge for them and the can relate to the needy whereas the wealthy walk on by or read about it.
707740
The common conception is that stingy people are that way because they have no money - because they have to be.  Some of the cheapest people you'll ever meet are rich folks though so in reality it can go either way.  At first it doesn't seem to make sense that a rich person would be stingy but then you have to figure there's a reason they are rich in the first place.  They probably didn't get there by being casual about money.
346574
The word poor here means a humble need for the Holy Spirit. It means that we are not self-sufficient spiritually and that we need it's life, power and it's sustaining grace constantly in this world we live. The poor in spirit inherits the kingdom of God which is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
615582
Oh what bullshit about "Gods way of making us work hard..." blah blah blah...the majority of rich people were born rich. Alot of it happens because of the goverment, and location. There's many factors...but don't bring something like GOD into this. What a lame ass answer...
1112318
moder usage,\nRedneck", like the word nigger, has two general uses: firstly, as a pejorative for outsiders, and secondly as a term used by members within that group. To outsiders, generally, it is a term for those of Southern or Appalachian rural poor backgrounds, or more loosely, rural poor to working-class persons of rural extraction. (Appalachia also includes large parts of Pennsylvania, New York and other states) Within that group, however, it is used to describe the more downscale members. Rednecks span from the poor to the working class.\n\nThe term "Peckerwood", an inversion of "Woodpecker", is also used, but usually only with negative connotations. This word was coined in the 19th century by southern blacks to describe poor whites. They considered them loud and troublesome like the bird, and often with red hair like the woodpecker's head plumes. This word is still widely used by southern blacks to refer to southern whites.\n\nUsage of the term "Redneck" generally differs from Hick and Hillbilly, because Rednecks reject or resist assimilation into the dominant culture, while Hicks and Hillbillies theoretically are isolated from the dominant culture. In this way, the Redneck is similar to the Cracker.\n\nGenerally, there is a continuum from redneck (a derisive term) to the country person; however, there are differences. Rednecks typically are more libertine, especially in their personal lives, than their country brethren who tend towards social conservatism. Also, the lowest class rednecks, especially, have a penchant for the obscene or outrageous (see "stereotype" below).\n\nIn contrast to country people, they tend not to attend church, or do so infrequently. They also tend to use alcohol and gamble more than their church going neighbors. Further, "politically apathetic" better describes this group. The younger ones generally don't vote. If they do vote, while they tend towards populism and the Democratic party, they are less homogenous than the country people and other Southern whites. Many Southern celebrities like Jeff Foxworthy and the late Jerry Clower embrace the redneck label. It is used both as a term of pride and as a derogatory epithet; sometimes to paint country people and/or their lifestyle as being low class. In recent years, members of the American Left from the West Coast and New England have taken to calling Christian Conservatives as "Rednecks" presumably as an insult. [2] This practice succeeds in insulting both Rednecks and Christian Conservatives, but is grossly inaccurate based on the pro-labor, anti-establishment, anti-hierarchy religious orientation of traditional Rednecks.\n\nWriter Edward Abbey, as well as the original Earth First! under Dave Foreman (before that group was taken over by urban leftists around 1990), proudly adopted the term rednecks to describe themselves. This reflected the term's possible historical origin among striking coal miners to describe white rural working-class radicalism. "In Defense of the Redneck" was a popular essay by Ed Abbey. One popular early Earth First! bumper sticker was "Rednecks for Wilderness." Murray Bookchin, an urban leftist and social ecologist, objected strongly to Earth First!'s use of the term as having racist overtones and used this as part of his broader attack on deep ecology, possibly reflecting pro-urban and anti-white working class, anti-rural biases.\n\nThe recent prosperity of the New South changed the social status of the Redneck. The 20th-Century ideas of Southern upward mobility, which required dropping or modifying your accent and joining the mainstream, was considered the norm for the region. (Exceptions were made for politicians and college football coaches, for whom a drawl was still required for regional credibility.) Newfound prosperity allowed Rednecks to cling to their old ways and reject the status quo of modernity. In the 1990s,
425497
In the US, you have a chance to make somehthing out of yourself, no matter where you comes from or your socio-econimic status.  There is no aristocracy in the US.  We are what we are driven to be.
675482
The amount of money required to be considered middle class depends on the soceity the person lives in, Money alone will not classify a person as middle class. Middle Class is more than a financial situation , it depends on the cultural capital the individual possesses.\nCultural Capital the person receives from their family and soceity around them will prepare them for their place in soceity. This cultural capital will make things such as education and employment success easier to acquire.\n\nDirt poor is a term referring to individuals in constant debt with not enough money to buy or provide for there basic needs such as food, shelter and clothes. When your dirt poor obtaining a line of credit isnt even possible.
829921
I agree in an obscure way. I believe that it is a sin to put our own needs first instead of doing what Jesus says to do and that is to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we all did that there would be no poverty, but Jesus knows everything; thus He knows that man will love ourselves most....which causes some to be rich and more to be poor.
962819
It means you're poor and can't afford food. It's from the Jefferson's theme song, right?
606218
It came from the word "Negro" which is Spanish (I think) for the word black. In slavery times and for a while afterword, it was a more polite way to refer to black people (if polite can be used in this context at all). The 'n' word was a more derogatory, more crass derivative of the word "Negro".
998592
It comes from the early 1800s in London.  The term "pig" for a contemptable person was around a long time before that.  Particularly, the name refers to a certain group of Police called the Bow Street Runners that criminals referred to as China Street Pigs.
793676
Sorry you've had such rubbish answers. \n\nI'm usually quite good at this sort of thing, but I'm afraid I can't find any info on the origins of this phrase.\n\nI hope someone more knowledgeable answers you soon!
1184788
If they were black and poor it was called looting\n\nIf they were white and rich or poor it was called looking for food and supplies