gold bug

English

Alternative forms

• goldbug

Noun

gold bug (plural gold bugs)

1. (informal, finance) A person with a particularly great enthusiasm for investing in gold (the metal).

   The swing in equities scared him so much that he became a gold bug for a while.

   • 2022 January 28, Paul Krugman, “How Crypto Became the New Subprime”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Still, crypto has been effectively marketed: It manages both to seem futuristic and to appeal to old-style goldbug fears that the government will inflate away your savings, and huge past gains have drawn in investors worried about missing out.

2. (informal, economics) A person who is opposed to fiat currency and supports a return to the gold standard.

   The swing in inflation scared him so much that he became a gold bug for a while.

3. (informal) A person who collects gold items.

   If you see the decorating style in his living room, you'll know that he's a gold bug.

4. (informal) A particularly great enthusiasm for gold — whether as an investment, a hoard, a collectible, or otherwise — portrayed figuratively as an arthropod that bites people and infects them, causing a mental illness.

   bitten by the gold bug

   He was bitten by the gold bug a long time ago, and some of the venom is still in his veins.

See also

• golden beetle
• gold fever
• gold rush