one-percenter

English

Alternative forms

• 1-percenter, one percenter

Etymology

From one percent +‎ -er. After Thomas Edison: Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. The motorcycling sense comes from a supposed statement made by the American Motorcycle Association in 1948 that 99% of motorcyclists are good people enjoying a clean sport, and it is only 1% who are antisocial.

Noun

one-percenter (plural one-percenters)

1. A member of the top one percent of a population by wealth, ability, etc. (same as the ninety-ninth percentile), especially in a society with high wealth inequality.
   • 2000, E. Ray Canterbery, Wall Street Capitalism: The Theory of the Bondholding Class, page 138:

     An upper one-percenter in the income and wealth distributions, Rubin commuted by private jet between the tony Jefferson Hotel in Washington and his Park home in New York.

   • 2002, Bill Press, Spin This!: All the Ways We Don't Tell the Truth, page 17:

     When critics pointer out that the bulk of his tax cut went to the wealthiest one percent of American […] , after Bush got finished spinning, it's amazing how many Americans ended up feeling sorry for those poor, deprived one percenters.

   • 2004, George Black, The Trout Pool Paradox: The American Lives of Three Rivers, page 204:

     "But a few survive, those with the right genetic trait, the one-percenters that will carry on and reproduce that trait."

   • 2006, David Weber, In Fury Born:

     [Y]ou've been one of the "one-percenters." You've always been in that rarefied top one percent of the people doing whatever you were doing at any given moment in your life.

   • 2018, Oliver Bullough, quoting Bradley Birkenfeld, chapter 17, in Moneyland, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 243:

     I'd perfected my game, flying first-class all over the world, staying in five-star resort hotels, and seducing scores of one-percenters into stashing their fortunes in Swiss numbered accounts, no questions asked.

2. (comedy) An esoteric joke which is unlikely to be appreciated by a general audience.
3. One who wishes to be recognized for an idea without putting forth the "ninety-nine percent perspiration" needed to implement that idea.
4. An outlaw biker, such as a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club.
   • 1991, Daniel R. Wolf, The Rebels: A Brotherhood of Outlaw Bikers, page 272:

     The patch holders themselves recognize that within the framework of the club there exists a radical faction - "the heavies" or "one percenters".

   • 2002, Chuck Zito, Street Justice, page 106:

     It was Sonny's idea to ally the various clubs under a diamond-shaped "one-percenter" patch. He took it a step further by becoming the first Hells Angel to have the famous "one-percenter" drawn on his arm.

   • 2004, Karen Larsen, Breaking the Limit: One Woman's Motorcycle Journey Through North America, page 271:

     There is, without a doubt, the "one-percenter" subculture consisting of individuals who are social renegades in the criminal sense.

Further reading

• one percent on Wikipedia.Wikipedia