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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

par·si·mo·ny

Audio Help [pahr-suh-moh-nee] Pronunciation Key

–noun

extreme or excessive economy or frugality; stinginess; niggardliness.

[Origin: 1400–50; late ME parcimony < L parsimōnia, parcimōnia frugality, thrift, equiv. to parsi- (comb. form of parsus, ptp. of parcere to economize) or parci- (comb. form of parcus sparing) + -mōnia -mony

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
parsimony

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

par·si·mo·ny Audio Help (pär'sə-mō'nē) Pronunciation Key
n.

Unusual or excessive frugality; extreme economy or stinginess.
Adoption of the simplest assumption in the formulation of a theory or in the interpretation of data, especially in accordance with the rule of Ockham's razor.

[Middle English parcimony, from Latin parsimōnia, from parsus, past participle of parcere, to spare.]

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
parsimony

1432, from L. parsimonia "sparingness, frugality," from pars-, stem of parsi, perf. tense of parcere "to spare, save" + -monia, suffix signifying action or condition. Parsimonious first attested 1598, not originally with suggestion of stinginess.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

parsimony
noun
1.	extreme care in spending money; reluctance to spend money unnecessarily
2.	extreme stinginess [syn: meanness]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Parsimony

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.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Parsimony

Par`si*mo"ni*ous\, a. [Cf. F. parcimonieux. See Parsimony.] Exhibiting parsimony; sparing in expenditure of money; frugal to excess; penurious; niggardly; stingy. -- Par`si*mo"ni*ous*ly, adv. -- Par`si*mo"ni*ous*ness, n.

A prodigal king is nearer a tyrant than a parsimonious. --Bacon.

Extraordinary funds for one campaign may spare us the expense of many years; whereas a long, parsimonious war will drain us of more men and money. --Addison.

Syn: Covetous; niggardly; miserly; penurious; close; saving; mean; stingy; frugal. See Avaricious.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Parsimony

Par"si*mo*ny\, n. [L. parsimonia, parcimonia; cf. parcere to spare, parsus sparing: cf. F. parcimonie.] Closeness or sparingness in the expenditure of money; -- generally in a bad sense; excessive frugality; niggardliness. --Bacon.

Awful parsimony presided generally at the table. --Thackeray.

Syn: Economy; frugality; illiberality; covetousness; closeness; stinginess. See Economy.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

parsimony

Prod`i*gal"i*ty\, n. [F. prodigalit['e], L. prodigalitas. See Prodigal.] Extravagance in expenditure, particularly of money; excessive liberality; profusion; waste; -- opposed to frugality, economy, and parsimony."The prodigality of his wit." --Dryden.

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