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.) By surface analysis, a change from wearing ragged clothing (due to being impoverished) to obtaining a lot of money.

Pronunciation

Audio (General Australian): (file)

Noun

rags to riches

(chiefly attributive) From poverty to exceptional wealth.
Antonym: riches to rags
- 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
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
Polish: od zera do milionera (literally “from a zero to a millionaire”)
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")