parsimony

English

Etymology

From Middle English parcimonie, from Middle French parsimonie, from Latin parsimōnia (“frugality, sparingness”), from parsus, past participle of parcere (“to spare”).

Pronunciation

  • Hyphenation: par‧si‧mony

Noun

parsimony (usually uncountable, plural parsimonies)

  1. Great reluctance to spend money unnecessarily.
    • 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations:
      Parsimony, and not industry, is the immediate cause of the increase of capital. Industry, indeed, provides the subject which parsimony accumulates. But whatever industry might acquire, if parsimony did not save and store up, the capital would never be the greater.
    • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 9:
      If mere parsimony could have made a man rich, Sir Pitt Crawley might have become very wealthy […]
  2. (by extension) The principle of using the fewest resources or explanations to solve a problem.

Synonyms

Translations

See also

Further reading

  • parsimony in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • parsimony in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
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