parsimonious
adjective

- not willing to spend money or to give or use a lot of something

The Cambridge Dictionary

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ORIGIN

Early 15th century, from the noun parsimony, meaning sparingness in the use of expenditure of means, from Latin parsimonia, from pars-, past-participle stem of parcere: to spare, save, refrain from, use moderately.

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EXTREME PARSIMONY

In 2002 the British multi-millionaire Nicholas van Hoogstragen was sent to prison for ten years for the murder of his partner. Police officers who performed the search in his house found a large number of used tea bags. He dried them, and then used to make tea all over again.

Van Hoogstragen’s private mansion (Hamilton Palace in East Sussex) is larger than Buckingham Palace and is worth £40 million. The mansion includes a marble mausoleum he intends for himself.

Under English law, perpetual trusts are only allowed in the upkeep of monuments and graves. By using the palace as a mausoleum, van Hoogstraten’s trust would legally own the buildings and their fittings in perpetuity after his death.

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SYNONYMS

miserly, niggardly, close-fisted, penny-pinching, cheese-paring, ungenerous, grasping, Scrooge-like, stinting, sparing, frugal, mean, tight-fisted, stingy, tight, mingy, money-grubbing, skinflinty, cheap; tight-arsed/assed (slang)

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ANTONYMS

benevolent, magnanimous, humanitarian, philanthropic, bounteous, knightly, tender-hearted, warmhearted, great-hearted, having heart in right place, generous to a fault, loving and giving, well intentioned, noble-minded, good scout, Robin Hood

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Practice OWAD in an English conversation, say something like:

“Christmas time reminds us of Charles Dickens’ PARSIMONIOUS Mr Scrooge.”

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A shout-out to Jacky for suggesting today’s word,…

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Paul Smith