thrifty

Etymology

It is formed from English thrift + -y,^[2][3][4][5] Middle English thrifti.^[6] The OED takes the noun from thrive with the suffix -t of drift and gift, and thinks that Old Norse þrift (“thriving condition, prosperity”) may have reinforced it in the north of England;^[2] Hoad derives the noun from the Norse word outright, and Etymonline allows either influence or direct origin.^[7][3] The verb behind it is from Old Norse þrífask (“to thrive”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person, worthy of respect, estimable: about 1374, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century, as "socially respectable, prosperous",^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged likewise to the 14th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The noun thrift at first meant the condition of one who thrives,^[3] and the Middle English Dictionary's senses of the adjective run from prosperous and respectable to healthy, skilful and well made.^[6] Chaucer also applied it to things, in the sense of decent or proper: in the Shorter Oxford's quotation his speaker has no thrifty clooth.^[4][2] In the OED, the sense of respectable ends in 1596.^[2] Thriving in body or growth is recorded by about 1400 in Etymonline and about 1440 in the OED.^[3][2] The sense "frugal, careful of money", now the main one, appears in the 1520s,^[3][2] a few decades before the noun is recorded for the habit of saving, in the 1550s.^[3] Johnson (1755) gave "frugal; sparing" first, then "well-husbanded", and did not list the sense of thriving,^[8] and Trench (1859) noted that the word no longer meant thriving, although he had heard a newly planted tree that was doing well called thrifty in provincial speech.^[9] The English Dialect Dictionary records "thriving, in good health" in Lincolnshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Hampshire, and "considerate, saving of time or trouble" in Shetland.^[10] In slang a thrifty was a threepenny bit, the twelve-sided coin minted from 1937 to 1952 with the plant called thrift on its reverse, in a play on the ordinary word.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – of a person, worthy, respectable (obsolete by 1596).^[2]
• c. 1386 – of an action or thing, decent, proper (obsolete by 1449).^[2]
• c. 1440 – prosperous, successful; also thriving physically, growing vigorously.^[2] Etymonline dates "healthy, thriving" to about 1400.^[3]
• 1526 – careful of expenditure, frugal.^[2] Etymonline has the 1520s.^[3]
• 1937 – noun, slang, a threepenny bit.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Careful with money and resources; economical, frugal: A thrifty cook plans each week's meals around what is cheap at the market.^[12][5][2]
2. Growing vigorously; healthy, flourishing: The seedlings looked thrifty after a week of rain.^[5][2][4]
3. Doing well through hard work and care; prosperous; a rare sense according to Collins.^[5][2][12]
4. (obsolete, c. 1374–1596) Of a person, worthy, respectable.^[2][4][6]
5. (obsolete, c. 1386–1449) Of an action or thing, decent, proper.^[2][4]

Noun

1. (slang) A threepenny bit.^[11]

Word family

• thriftily
• thriftiness
• overthrifty

Related words

• thrift
• thrive
• spendthrift
• unthrifty

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
11. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins