economy

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /iˈkɒn.ə.mi/, US /iˈkɑː.nə.mi/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English yconomye,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French économie, yconomie,^[2][3] or directly borrowed from Latin oeconomia,^[4][2] from Ancient Greek οἰκονομία (oikonomía, “household management, thrift”),^[4][5] from οἰκονόμος (oikonómos, “manager, steward”),^[4][2] from οἶκος (oîkos, “house”), from Proto-Indo-European *weik- (“clan”), and νέμειν (némein, “to manage”), from Proto-Indo-European *nem- (“to assign, allot”).^[4][2][6] Greek oîkos is cognate with Latin vīcus and Old English wīc “dwelling, village”.^[4] In the 15th century the word was spelled oikonomy, and like ecology it comes from Greek oîkos.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The management of a household's economic affairs, in this case those of a monastery: 1440, in a work possibly composed that year.^[2][8][4] The OED's first example of the art of managing a household is from about 1530,^[9] and Etymonline dates it to the 1530s.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Greek word had not only the sense “management of a household” but also “thrift”, “administration”, “arrangement” and “public revenue of a state”,^[8] and English took up several of these.^[8] The management of the resources of a community or country is from 1651, in Hobbes' Leviathan,^[2][9] the 1650s in Etymonline, short for political economy;^[4] political economy itself (1767) translates French économie politique.^[9][6] Frugality, the careful use of resources, is from the 1660s,^[4] and even in the 1780s the American Founders generally used economy in this sense.^[4] The economic system of a country, now probably the most common sense, seems to have developed only in the 19th or 20th century.^[8] As an adjective in advertising, “cheaper”, it is from 1821, and “larger and so cheaper per unit” from 1950;^[4] economy class in air travel is a 20th-century use.^[3][10] Economic is from 1592 and economical from 1577.^[2] Economical with the truth, a euphemism for lying, dates from the mid-19th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 1440 – management of a household's affairs.^[2]
• 1577 – economical.^[2]
• 1592 – economic.^[2]
• 1651 – management of a country's resources.^[2][9]
• 1660s – frugality.^[4]
• 1767 – political economy.^[9]
• 1821 – adjective, cheaper.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The system of production, trade and consumption of goods and services in a country or region.
2. Careful management of resources so as to avoid waste; thrift.
3. A saving: economies of scale.
4. Efficient, sparing use or arrangement: economy of style.
5. The cheapest class of travel, especially on an aircraft.

Adjective

1. Cheaper, or larger and so cheaper per unit: economy size.

Word family

• diseconomy
• economic
• economical
• economism
• economist
• economize
• subeconomy
• supereconomy

Related words

• economics
• macroeconomics
• microeconomics
• ecology
• ecumenical
• nomad
• vicinity

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin