What is the difference between "gold digger" and "coal digger"?

The dictionary says
gold digger : a girl who wants to marry or will have intercourse with a man only to use him for his money.
coal digger : the opposite of golddigger; a woman or man who deliberately selects partners whose attractiveness lies in the fact that they are a financial liability.

Well, for me, The definitions seem the same.. How is "coal digger" the opposite of "gold digger"?

cf) there is a context below I can't understand.
------------------------------------------------------------
Phil : Listen, Claire feels terrible. Why don't you talk to her?
Gloria : Why? I know what she thinks... A coal digger.
Phil : No, she's saying "gold digger."
Gloria : Yes, Phil...
Phil : I know she said that, but that was a long time ago, before...
she knew you.

Antworten

DealingWithIt

8 Sep 2020

Englisch (US)

A gold digger is someone who wants to date you because you have money. A coal digger is someone who wants to date you because you DON’T have money.

As for the conversation, I’m not sure without the context. It’s honestly a bit awkward. But it seems like Gloria is mad at Claire for preciously being a gold digger and thinks it changes their relationship.

Let me know if you have any questions!

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ahyeji

8 Sep 2020

Koreanisch

@DealingWithIt Thank you very much for your detailed explanation.
However, I have one question. What does someone want to date you for, even though you don't have money?

And the context of the drama is...
First, Claire said to her husband that Gloria was a coal digger. (Gloria's husband was so rich.) And after Gloria knew the fact, she was pissed.
To appease Gloria, Claire's husband lied to her that Claire called her Gold Digger, not Coal digger.

DealingWithIt

8 Sep 2020

Englisch (US)

@ahyeji Good question! It’s different for each “coal digger” but it’s usually because they enjoy having someone rely entirely on them. Because the person they’re dating has no money, they have to go to the coal digger for essentially everything. Or they want to show off their wealth. Or they enjoy differences between social classes (e.g high class vs low/middle class.

This is also when you can branch into the “kink” territory. For some of them (coal diggers) it’s also a sexual preference. They want to show financial dominance over their partner and it’s something that they get off on.

Of course, these reasons can greatly vary from person to person as everyone is different. It’s not something seen often BUT it definitely exists

Also, with the context that discussion makes much more sense!

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ahyeji

8 Sep 2020

Koreanisch

@DealingWithIt Now, I perfectly got it... Thank you very much.. Whenever I study English with drama scripts, The cultural differences make me hard to understand... Your explanation helped me a lot. Thank you again.