English in a Minute: Gold Digger

Welcome to English in a Minute!  

Gold is a valuable material. We can dig gold out of mountains and get rich! So, is that what “gold digger” means?  

D: Bob seems really upset these days.  
A: That’s understandable. He lost a lot of money in the stock market. 
D: How did that happen? 
A: Bob needed a lot of money fast, or his wife said she was going to leave him.  
D: Wow! She sounds like a real gold digger.  

In the mid 1800s, lots of people went to the American West to dig for newly found gold. They were called gold diggers. But these days, a “gold digger” is a person who chooses their relationships based on money, not love.

[davidhill]

A gold digger these days is used to refer to women who choose relationships for the sake of money rather than love. The men who feed such women are called simps.

[Neo-Reloaded]

I don't like this expression because it's disrespectful towards those women. I've seen two types of relationships: one where the man has money; and other where it's a gorgeous man. One woman chooses money, the other one physical beauty. I don't consider women pursuing physical beauty superior to those pursuing money. I've never seen a relationship where the man is ugly and poor. It's just the painful truth.