The Gilded Age
Etymology
Coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner as the title of their 1873 novel “The Gilded Age.” The key word is “gilded,” not “golden”: gilding is a thin layer of gold over base metal, so the name is a pointed jab at glittering surfaces hiding decay — never a compliment about a golden era.
noun · /GIL-did ayj/
The late-19th-century American era of explosive industrial wealth, extravagant display, and deep corruption beneath a glittering surface.
What it names
It gives a name to any period whose dazzling prosperity masks rot and inequality underneath — a favorite comparison for our own age of tycoons.
Example
Critics call today’s billionaire mansions a second Gilded Age.
Related idea
It relates to conspicuous consumption, the term Thorstein Veblen later coined for the era’s habit of flaunting wealth purely to signal status.