economy definition | Dictionary.com

e⋅con⋅o⋅my

[i-kon-uh-mee]

noun, plural -mies, adjective, adverb

–noun

1.	thrifty management; frugality in the expenditure or consumption of money, materials, etc.

2.	an act or means of thrifty saving; a saving: He achieved a small economy by walking to work instead of taking a bus.

3.	the management of the resources of a community, country, etc., esp. with a view to its productivity.

4.	the prosperity or earnings of a place: Further inflation would endanger the national economy seriously.

5.	the disposition or regulation of the parts or functions of any organic whole; an organized system or method.

6.	the efficient, sparing, or concise use of something: an economy of effort; an economy of movement.

7.	economy class.

Theology.

a.	the divine plan for humanity, from creation through redemption to final beatitude.

b.	the method of divine administration, as at a particular time or for a particular race.

9.	Obsolete. the management of household affairs.

–adjective

10.	intended to save money: to reduce the staff in an economy move.

11.	costing less to make, buy, or operate: an economy car.

12.	of or pertaining to economy class: the economy fare to San Francisco.

–adverb

13.	in economy-class accommodations, or by economy-class conveyance: to travel economy.

Origin:
1520–30; (< MF economie) < L oeconomia < Gk oikonomíā household management, equiv. to oîko(s) house + -nomia -nomy

Synonyms:
1. thriftiness, thrift, saving.

Antonyms:
1. lavishness, extravagance, wastefulness.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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e·con·o·my (ĭ-kŏn'ə-mē)

n. pl. e·con·o·mies

1. Careful, thrifty management of resources, such as money, materials, or labor: learned to practice economy in making out the household budget.
2. An example or result of such management; a saving.
3. The system or range of economic activity in a country, region, or community: Effects of inflation were felt at every level of the economy.
4. A specific type of economic system: an industrial economy; a planned economy.
1. The system or range of economic activity in a country, region, or community: Effects of inflation were felt at every level of the economy.
2. A specific type of economic system: an industrial economy; a planned economy.
An orderly, functional arrangement of parts; an organized system: "the sense that there is a moral economy in the world, that good is rewarded and evil is punished" (George F. Will).
Efficient, sparing, or conservative use: wrote with an economy of language.
The least expensive class of accommodations, especially on an airplane.
Theology The method of God's government of and activity within the world.

adj. Economical or inexpensive to buy or use: an economy car; an economy motel.

[Middle English yconomye, management of a household, from Latin oeconomia, from Greek oikonomiā, from oikonomos, manager of a household : oikos, house; see weik-¹ in Indo-European roots + nemein, to allot, manage; see nem- in Indo-European roots.]

Word History: Managing an economy has at least an etymological justification. The word economy can be traced back to the Greek word oikonomos, "one who manages a household," derived from oikos, "house," and nemein, "to manage." From oikonomos was derived oikonomiā, which had not only the sense "management of a household or family" but also senses such as "thrift," "direction," "administration," "arrangement," and "public revenue of a state." The first recorded sense of our word economy, found in a work possibly composed in 1440, is "the management of economic affairs," in this case, of a monastery. Economy is later recorded in other senses shared by oikonomiā in Greek, including "thrift" and "administration." What is probably our most frequently used current sense, "the economic system of a country or an area," seems not to have developed until the 19th or 20th century.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Economy

E*con"o*my\, n.; pl. Economies. [F. ['e]conomie, L. oeconomia household management, fr. Gr. ?, fr. ? one managing a household; ? house (akin to L. vicus village, E. vicinity) + ? usage, law, rule, fr. ne`mein to distribute, manage. See Vicinity, Nomad.]

1. The management of domestic affairs; the regulation and government of household matters; especially as they concern expense or disbursement; as, a careful economy.

Himself busy in charge of the household economies. --Froude.

2. Orderly arrangement and management of the internal affairs of a state or of any establishment kept up by production and consumption; esp., such management as directly concerns wealth; as, political economy.

3. The system of rules and regulations by which anything is managed; orderly system of regulating the distribution and uses of parts, conceived as the result of wise and economical adaptation in the author, whether human or divine; as, the animal or vegetable economy; the economy of a poem; the Jewish economy.

The position which they [the verb and adjective] hold in the general economy of language. --Earle.

In the Greek poets, as also in Plautus, we shall see the economy . . . of poems better observed than in Terence. --B. Jonson.

The Jews already had a Sabbath, which, as citizens and subjects of that economy, they were obliged to keep. --Paley.

4. Thrifty and frugal housekeeping; management without loss or waste; frugality in expenditure; prudence and disposition to save; as, a housekeeper accustomed to economy but not to parsimony.

Political economy. See under Political.

Syn: Economy, Frugality, Parsimony. Economy avoids all waste and extravagance, and applies money to the best advantage; frugality cuts off indulgences, and proceeds on a system of saving. The latter conveys the idea of not using or spending superfluously, and is opposed to lavishness or profusion. Frugality is usually applied to matters of consumption, and commonly points to simplicity of manners; parsimony is frugality carried to an extreme, involving meanness of spirit, and a sordid mode of living. Economy is a virtue, and parsimony a vice.

I have no other notion of economy than that it is the parent to liberty and ease. --Swift.

The father was more given to frugality, and the son to riotousness [luxuriousness]. --Golding.

Language Translation for : economy

Spanish: economía,

German: die Sparsamkeit,

Japanese: 節約

More Translations »

economy

c.1530, "household management," from L. oeconomia, from Gk. oikonomia "household management," from oikonomos "manager, steward," from oikos "house" (cognate with L. vicus "district," vicinus "near;" O.E. wic "dwelling, village;" see villa) + nomos "managing," from nemein "manage" (see numismatics). The sense of "manage the resources of a country" (short for political economy) is from 1651. Hence, economic (1835) means "related to the science of economics," while economical (1780) retains the sense "characterized by thrift." Economist is 1586 in the sense of "household manager," 1804 meaning "student of political economy." Economy (adj.) as a term in advertising at first meant simply "cheaper" (1821), then "bigger and thus cheaper per unit or amount" (1950).

Economy

The large set of inter-related economic production and consumption activities which aid in determining how scarce resources are allocated.

Investopedia Commentary

The economy encompasses everything related to the production and consumption of goods and services in an area.

The economy and the factors affecting the economy have spawned one of the largest fields of study in human history - economics. The study of economics can be broken into two major areas of focus, microeconomics and macroeconomics.

Main Entry: econ·o·my
Pronunciation: i-'kän-&-mE
Function: noun
Inflected Form: plural -mies
1 : thesystem of operation of the processes of anabolism and catabolism in living bodies economy of the cell>
2 : the body of an animal or plant as an organized wholeeconomy —Leonard Engel>

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