• Today's Word

Parsimonious

🔊 Listen to the word Parsimonious

 par-sih-MOH-nee-us

Definition

(adjective) Unwilling to spend money or use resources; extremely frugal to the point of stinginess.

Example

 He was so parsimonious that he kept the thermostat at 58 degrees all winter and wore two sweaters instead.

Word Origin

From Latin parsimonia, meaning “frugality” or “thrift,” derived from parcere (“to spare, be sparing”). The word entered English in the 15th century through Old French. Its Latin root is also the ancestor of “sparse” — both words carry the idea of deliberate scarcity.

Fun Fact

“Parsimonious” has a philosophical sibling: Occam’s Razor — the principle that the simplest explanation is usually correct — is sometimes called the “principle of parsimony.” In science, parsimony means elegance and economy of explanation, which is considered a virtue. So the same word that describes a miser hoarding his pennies also describes one of the most respected principles in logic and scientific reasoning — the idea that less, truly, is more.