Note: We are taking a short break from blogging this week and will be re-posting a few of our earlier articles that may not have been read by many of our current readers. If you have already read this article (and those few to come), we apologize for the repetition and assure you that we will have some new material for you soon. Thanks for reading!

Language Lesson ~ Frugality is a Virtue
(Re-Post: Original post date February 24, 2008)

In modern times where the spending of money is oftentimes equated with power and status, the word “frugal” or “frugality” seems to carry an almost negative connotation and be associated with stinginess or miserliness (if you look it up in a thesaurus). However, if we go back to the actual definition and etymology (origins) of the word, we see that frugality is really a positive trait and nothing to be at all ashamed of.

“Frugal” or “frugality” is defined as “characterized by or reflecting economy in the use of resources”, “prudence in avoiding waste”, and “prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful”.

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These days, the word “finance” is generally accepted to mean something like “the management of money,” and while “management of money” doesn’t sound quite so bad, the word itself (”finance” or even worse, the plural “finances”) often seems accompanied by a host of psychological and emotional effects including but not limited to: fear, dread, confusion, and sometimes a general feeling of doom.

For example, Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary provides the following definitions:

1. (plural) money or other liquid resources of a government, business, group, or individual
2. the system that includes the circulation of money, the granting of credit, the making of investments, and the provision of banking facilities
3. the science or study of the management of funds
4. the obtaining of funds or capital

To the layperson, these definitions may seem rather daunting, especially #2. However, a closer examination of the origins of the word “finance” reveals quite something else and suggests that perhaps the earlier users of the word may have had quite the more optimistic outlook in dealing with their finances.

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In modern times where the spending of money is oftentimes equated with power and status, the word “frugal” or “frugality” seems to carry an almost negative connotation and be associated with stinginess or miserliness (if you look it up in a thesaurus). However, if we go back to the actual definition and etymology (origins) of the word, we see that frugality is really a positive trait and nothing to be at all ashamed of.

“Frugal” or “frugality” is defined as “characterized by or reflecting economy in the use of resources”, “prudence in avoiding waste”, and “prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful”.

The word frugal descends from the Latin frugalis, which has been associated with words such as “virtue” or “virtuous,” “honest,” “worthy,” “deserving,” “useful,” “thrifty,” “simple,” “profit” or “profitable,” “value” or “valuable,” “economical,” “temperate,” “sober,” and also “fruit” from frux or fructus, the root of the word “fruitful” which is defined as “yielding,” “profitable,” “productive” or “producing abundantly.”

The word “economy,” which is often associated with frugality, is defined as “management of expenses or resources”. It desecends from the Latin oeconomia and the Greek oikonomíā, which meant “household management”, derived from oikos “house,” nomos “managing”, which comes from nemein “manage” (and also I believe, the root of the Old English niman and the modern German “nehmen” which means “to take”).

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