parsimonious

Etymology

It is formed from English parsimony + -ous,^[2][3][4][5] or, as the OED allows, from the Latin source of that noun with the same suffix;^[6] Etymonline derives it from Latin parsimōnia (“frugality, thrift”).^[7] The OED compares Italian parsimonioso, recorded in 1598 in Florio.^[6] The noun, first found as parcimony in the early 15th century, is from the same Latin word,^[3][7][6] which is formed with the suffix -mōnia from the past participle stem of parcō (“to spare, save”).^[3][7][8][9] Klein and Etymonline note that the verb is not related to parvus (“small”).^[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person, sparing in spending; in early use also in a good sense, thrifty or frugal: the OED's first record is from about 1591, in Henry Barrow's Brief Discovery of the False Church.^[6] Merriam-Webster and Barnhart date the word to 1598,^[2][3] and Etymonline to the 1590s.^[7]

Semantic evolution

At first the word did not necessarily suggest meanness: Etymonline says the sense of stinginess had emerged by the 18th century,^[7] and the OED records both the positive "thrifty" and the negative "tight-fisted" in early use.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as "covetous; frugal; sparing" and added that it was used sometimes in a good and sometimes in a bad sense, quoting Bacon.^[10] From 1596, in Nashe, it could describe someone sparing with things that are not money, such as words or praise,^[6][11] and in 1713 it was first applied to a thing that is meagre or scanty, such as barren land.^[6][11] In the 19th century parsimony gave its name to the principle that no more causes or assumptions should be supposed than are needed,^[6] and since 1899 parsimonious has described a scientific hypothesis, especially a phylogenetic tree, that assumes the simplest process consistent with the evidence.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1591 – of a person, sparing or frugal; tight-fisted.^[6][11]
• 1596 – sparing in giving or using something abstract, such as words or emotion.^[6][11]
• 1713 – of a thing, poor or meagre; of land, barren.^[6][11]
• 1899 – of a scientific hypothesis, assuming the simplest explanation that fits the evidence.^[6]
• 1931 – of an organism or natural system, economical in action (now rare).^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Excessively frugal; unwilling to spend money; stingy: The parsimonious landlord refused to fix the boiler.^[12][2][13]
2. Sparing in giving or using something, such as words, praise or emotion.^[6][11]
3. Of an explanation or theory: accounting for the evidence with the fewest assumptions; simple.^[12][6]

Word family

• parsimoniously
• parsimoniousness
• unparsimonious

Related words

• parsimony

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e f Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press