greenbackism means A movement advocating for the inflation of the US currency. It carries an Arena rating of 975, earned across 117 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, greenbackism ranks #4,123 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #6,588 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #7,277 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #7,357 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words.
Why “greenbackism” is a great word
GREENBACKISM — [Noun] A post-Civil War American movement advocating an inflated, unbacked paper currency as a permanent system to aid debtors and fuel economic expansion. From 'greenback' (a U.S. legal-tender note, from its color) + the suffix '-ism' (denoting a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy). First attested in 1877. Unlike bimetallism, which clamored for the twin anchors of gold and silver, or hard money, the gospel of metallic convertibility, greenbackism was a radical faith in the sovereign power of the state to conjure value by fiat. It is the scent of ink on fresh, uncountable stacks in a government vault, the heated rhetoric in a cramped Grange hall, and the palpable hope of a debtor farmer that a printed promise could be as fertile as his soil—a fleeting conviction that value is a shared story, conjured from collective need rather than dug from the cold, unforgiving earth.
Etymology
From greenback + -ism.
noun
- A movement advocating for the inflation of the US currency.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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