argumentum ad crumenam

plural argumenta ad crumenam

1. rhetoricThe logical fallacy of concluding that a proposition is correct because the person advancing it is rich.

   The argumentum ad crumenam, however, is understood wherever there are pockets to appeal to, and even where there are none.

   1908 December 19, “An Unsavoury Bait”, in The British Medical Journal, volume 2, number 2503, →JSTOR, page 1832

   3 more examples

   That it be known and distinguished by the name and title of the Argumentum Fistulatorium, and no other;—and that it rank here∣after with the Argumentum Baculinum, and the Argumentum ad Crumenam, and for ever hereafter be treated of in the same chapter.

   1759, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

   An electioneering budget is an argumentum ad crumenam, and most elections in democracies have a strong element of this old argument.

   1991 April 12, Philip Howard, “Rhetoric and All That Rot”, in The Times, London

   Because this rich individual obviously made many correct choices in life, his belief in Jesus, according to the apologist, only makes sense. We call such a ridiculous proposal argumentum ad crumenam, an argument based on wealth.

   2005 January 19, Jason Long, Biblical Nonsense: A Review of the Bible for Doubting Christians, Lincoln, IN: iUniverse, →ISBN, →OL, page 25

   Synonyms: argument to the purse