rags to riches

See also: rags-to-riches

English

Alternative forms

• rags-to-riches

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.) Surface analysis, a change from wearing ragged clothing (because impoverished) to having a lot of money.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

rags to riches

1. (chiefly attributive) From poverty to exceptional wealth.
   • 2016 [2008], Janice Peck, Age of Oprah: Cultural Icon for the Neoliberal Era, Routledge, →ISBN, page IV:

     […] and finally [Oprah Winfrey] declared herself not only “a believer in the American dream of rags to riches” but living proof of its veracity.

Translations

from poverty to exceptional wealth

• Arabic: مِنَ الْفَقْرِ إِلَى الثَّرَاءِ (mina l-faqri ʔilā ṯ-ṯarāʔi), مِنَ الْفَقْرِ الْمُطْلَقِ إِلَى غِنَى الْفَاحِشِ (mina l-faqri l-muṭlaqi ʔilā ḡinā l-fāḥiši), مِنَ الْعُسْرِ إِلَى الْيُسْرِ (mina l-ʕusri ʔilā l-yusri)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 麻雀變鳳凰／麻雀变凤凰 (máquè biàn fènghuáng), 白手起家 (zh) (báishǒuqǐjiā, literally “build up from scratch”)

• Finnish: tuhkimotarina, ryysyistä rikkauksiin
• French: de la misère à la richesse (literally “from misery to wealth”)
• Galician: da pobreza á riqueza f
• German: vom Tellerwäscher zum Millionär (literally “from dishwasher to millionaire”)
• Hungarian: koldusból királyfi
• Italian: dalle stalle alle stelle (literally “from the stables to the stars”)
• Japanese: 無一文から大金持ちに (むいちもんからおおかねもちに, muichimon-kara ōkanemochi-ni, literally “from penniless to a very rich (person)”)
• Latin: per aspera ad astra
• Portuguese: da miséria a riqueza, renascido das cinzas
• Russian: из гря́зи в кня́зи (ru) (iz grjázi v knjázi, literally “from dirt to princedom”)
• Swedish: från koja till slott (literally "from hut to castle")

See also

• (from poverty to wealth) self-made, Horatio Alger
• (from low social station to high) go from zero to hero
• (antonymic contrast) nepotism, nepo baby

Further reading

• rags to riches on Wikipedia.Wikipedia