frugal

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin frūgālis (“thrifty, virtuous”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} perhaps partly borrowed from Middle French frugal,^{[7][8][9][10]} from frūgī (“useful, fit; economical”), an indeclinable adjective that was originally the dative of frūx (“fruit, produce; profit, value”).^[2][7][9][6] Hoad takes the Latin adjective as a back-formation from its comparative frūgālior,^[5] and Merriam-Webster from the adverb frūgāliter.^[8] Barnhart also allows that the English word may be a back-formation from the earlier frugality.^[9] The Latin noun is related to frūctus, the source of fruit, and to fruor (“to enjoy”);^[6][11][8] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *bhrug- (“to enjoy”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Sparing or economical, of a person: 1598, in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, "I was then frugal of my mirth".^[9][12] The OED dates the play's use before 1616 and has an earlier record of 1603, in Holland's translation of Plutarch, in the sense "sparingly supplied".^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1590 and Etymonline to the 1590s.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

Ayto points out the paradox that frugal comes from a word for fruit: what was useful or productive was profitable, and to be profitable it had to be economical, hence the sense of careful spending.^[6] Etymonline likewise says that the sense moved in Latin from "useful" to "profitable" to "economical".^[7] Weekley notes that the word was used of both persons and things, like its opposite luxurious.^[10] The construction frugal of, as in Shakespeare, may be obsolete,^[2] although Johnson (1755) still quoted Dryden's "frugal of light" for the senses thrifty, sparing and not lavish.^[13]

Timeline

• 1598 – of a person, sparing or economical.^[9] The OED dates this use before 1616, and Merriam-Webster to 1590.^[2][8]
• 1603 – of things, especially food, sparingly supplied, of small cost.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Careful not to waste money or resources; economical, thrifty: A frugal student, he cooked all his own meals.^[4][8][2]
2. Of food or other things, plain, inexpensive and sparingly supplied; meagre: a frugal supper of bread and soup.^[4][2]

Word family

• frugality
• frugally
• unfrugal

Related words

• fruit
• fruition
• fructify

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.