Nillionaire might very well be interpreted as a misspelling of millionaire what with the confusing phonetics as well as the closest possible proximity of the initial letters as the lone such case even upon every QWERTY arrangement that which only manages as much to reverse their natural order making it occur as more plausible an error. But as a word in itself that evokes thus a definite meaning of the contrary in fact to its illustrious cousin, it is quite English indeed in being a matter that matters all down to the T.
Once the legitimateness of it has been known, it however does not take much scratching of the brain to arrive at the exact explanation of what it intends. Like zillionaire coming to be out of the expression that suffixes some millions, nillionaire too strikes easily as being a derivant out of this wealthiness. But unlike the z thing going on to expand territories despite having no real root, the much realer identity of nillionaire digs instead dig into what is not even a definite existence. This very new millennium arising pledges itself to embody the assertion of nothingness as imbibed by nil but the exact elucidation does not quite arrive at the simplest description of what it would literally entail as being nil with respect to the millions.
Nillionaire of course is a person with no money- there’s no other way of it being something else. But the key here is the figurative rather than ‘actual’ nonexistence of money. This sounds way trickier than it should and for a term that is used pejoratively, the reference also asserts as unduly deep. Which might pull another trigger questioning the morality of addressing a penniless human in terms of the contemptuous. Just to be clear then, nillionaire is not anything that unjustly ridicules someone who does not possess the means and the money to lay claim to the exponential power of the growing zeros when considered ‘right’.
The basis for nillionaire in nullifying the ‘worth’ of a category of moneyless humans is a case in specialness, albeit of a less special kind. Nillionaire specifically refers to people who have no money of their own- this latter most essential phrase constructing the entire character of its calling also lending to the accompanying notion in mocking. Because it is as essential a nature of these no money-yielders that has them flaunting the wealth they do not themselves have but might come to possess through many possibilities. They are pretentious in fact about their source of wealth, which isn’t income though but could be anything from inheritance to claimance. What they take all pride in floundering not being something availed out of own accord is what assigns them a place not well regarded.
Put simply and nillionaires are those who are fortunate enough to be in possession of money due to some kind of associating with the more well-off- especially in classic instances of marrying among the rich, this stroke of luck however not in any way repressing their tendency to pass it off as their own. This is reasonable enough a case for all the looks of disapproval to prevail in the nillionaire context but like most other things and terms that go on to assume more generic meanings, the possibility has been explored here as well.
Nillionaire today might be hosting underlying notions of self depreciating humor, as many broke youngsters do not shy away from ‘declaring’ themselves as such. That is a long way from the 2007 beginnings of the term that has since remained marred in disrepute- and continues to do so in a significant strand of such expression. A sadder state of reality though also has come to find representation within this jargon, even when scouting relevance in metaphorical language to be one expression of an appallingly current conditioning.
In a global crisis of an economic universality that has been induced by any number of factors stirring ultimately the constant deterioration in the value of money, nillionaires might very well be us ordinary people. With seemingly sufficient money for a comfortable living and ever increasing avenues of income to fall back on, the modern mention of being penniless sounds as antiquated as what the penny itself is as a unit of money. But consider the practicalities- impracticalities to be literally incorrect but existentially exact- in money being lesser and lesser equipped to deal with such necessities that have come to assume the core character and nillionaire might indeed be the identity we would be reduced to.
The seeming power that we hold in terms of the money wads melts out when pertinent issues of purchasing power takes centerstage. After all money does not amount to anything if it cannot give one access to what they want and desire. No wonder our comfortable enough balances safely tucked in the banks is leading us to identify more as nillionaires than ever. Only that the case is reversed in the original intention of what the term sought to ascertain with us finding disapproval from our own selves, sans the possession of pride in our own money that today eschews any association with the flaunts in its own nominal estimate.
For pejoration to find such a cruel way in infiltrating our aspirations for a reasonable existence is at once amusing and ironic. Amusing because this is a reminder that we very often become the things we ridicule and unsettling as well in such realisation of what is irony working along its sharpest edges. That a term which isn’t even quite mainstream can trickle so deep down into the haughty human holding for it to shake that entire massive foundation is we don’t really know a case in intrigue or otherwise. If anything it is prophetic a pronunciation that even literal meanings or face values do not stand sure chance in this world of volatile realities.
