gold bug

Noun

gold bug (plural gold bugs)

1. (informal) 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.
   • 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.2022 January 28, Paul Krugman, “How Crypto Became the New Subprime”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
2. (informal) 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.