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miser

- 5 dictionary results

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; < L: wretched


2. skinflint, tightwad, pinchpenny.

Miser, The

–noun French, L'Avare),
a comedy (1668) by Molière.
mi·ser   (mī'zər)   
n.  
  1. One who lives very meagerly in order to hoard money.
  2. A greedy or avaricious person.

[From Latin, wretched.]

Miser

Mi"ser\, n. [L. miser wretched, miserable; cf. Gr. ? hate, ?, ? to hate: cf. It. & Sp. misero wretched, avaricious.]

1. A wretched person; a person afflicted by any great misfortune. [Obs.] --Spenser.

The woeful words of a miser now despairing. --Sir P. Sidney.

2. A despicable person; a wretch. [Obs.] --Shak.

3. A covetous, grasping, mean person; esp., one having wealth, who lives miserably for the sake of saving and increasing his hoard.

As some lone miser, visiting his store, Bends at his treasure, counts, recounts it o'er. --Goldsmith.

4. A kind of large earth auger. --Knight.
Language Translation for : miser
Spanish: avaro,
German: der Geizhals,
Japanese: けち

miser 
1542, "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 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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