"Almighty dollar" is an idiom often used to satirize obsession with material wealth, or with capitalism in general. The phrase implies that money is a kind of deity.
Although the phrase "almighty dollar" was not popularized until the 1900s, similar phrases had been used much earlier. For example, the British writer Ben Jonson wrote in 1616:
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The "dollar" version of the phrase is commonly attributed to Washington Irving, who used it in the story "The Creole Village," first published in the 1837 edition of The Magnolia, a literary annual:[1][note 1]
Edward Bulwer-Lytton is often credited with coining the related phrase "pursuit of the almighty dollar", which he used in his 1871 novel The Coming Race.[2] More obscure uses of the phrase can be found as far back as 1852.[3][4]
The words "Almighty Dollar" are repeated in the 1973 funk hit single "For the Love of Money" by The O'Jays. The song cautions against the intense desire for money and the negative effects that such desire can have on a person's personality and actions.
The phrase "Almighty Dollar" is repeated many times in the song "Money (In God We Trust)" by the funk metal band Extreme.
Notes
↑The story was also reprinted in its entirety in the November 1836 issue of The Knickerbocker magazine within a review of The Magnolia.
↑Irving, Washington. "The Creole Village," The Complete Works of Washington Irving, Vol. 27. Roberta Rosenberg, editor. Boston, Twayne Publications, 1979, xxii.
