Nearby Words

Miser

[mahy-zer] Example Sentences Origin

mi·ser

[mahy-zer]
noun
1.
a person who lives in wretched circumstances in order to save and hoard money.
2.
a stingy, avaricious person.
3.
Obsolete. a wretched or unhappy person.

Origin:
1535–45; < Latin: wretched


2. skinflint, tightwad, pinchpenny.

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Miser is always a great word to know.
So is zedonk. Does it mean:
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
Example Sentences
  • As anyone surely knows, Scrooge is a nasty miser.
  • Before he began giving money away, people complained that he was a miser.
  • I'm neither a spendthrift nor a miser.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged

Miser, The

noun (French, L'Avare),
a comedy (1668) by Molière.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To Miser
Collins
World English Dictionary
miser1 (ˈmaɪzə)
 
n
1.  a person who hoards money or possessions, often living miserably
2.  selfish person
 
[C16: from Latin: wretched]

miser2 (ˈmaɪzə)
 
n
civil engineering a large hand-operated auger used for loose soils
 
[C19: origin unknown]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

miser
1540s, "miserable person, wretch," from L. miser (adj.) "unhappy, wretched," of unknown origin. Original sense now obsolete; main modern meaning of "money-hoarding person" first recorded c.1560, from presumed unhappiness of such people. Besides general wretchedness, the L. word connoted also "intense
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erotic love" (cf. slang got it bad "deeply infatuated") and hence was a favorite word of Catullus. In Gk. a miser was kyminopristes, lit. "a cumin seed splitter." In Mod.Gk., he or she might be called hekentabelones, lit. "one who has sixty needles." The Ger. word, filz, lit. "felt," preserves the image of the felt slippers which the miser often wore in caricatures. Lettish mantrausis "miser" is lit. "money-raker."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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