ECONOMY

economy, saving

(noun) an act of economizing; reduction in cost; “it was a small economy to walk to work every day”; “there was a saving of 50 cents”

economy, thriftiness

(noun) frugality in the expenditure of money or resources; “the Scots are famous for their economy”

economy

(noun) the efficient use of resources; “economy of effort”

economy, economic system

(noun) the system of production and distribution and consumption

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Noun

economy (countable and uncountable, plural economies)

Effective management of a community or system, or especially its resources.

(obsolete) The regular operation of nature in the generation, nutrition and preservation of animals or plants.

(obsolete) System of management; general regulation and disposition of the affairs of a state or nation, or of any department of government.

(obsolete) A system of rules, regulations, rites and ceremonies.

(obsolete) The disposition or arrangement of any work.

The study of money, currency and trade, and the efficient use of resources.

Frugal use of resources.

The system of production and distribution and consumption. The overall measure of a currency system; as the national economy.

(theology) The method of divine government of the world. (See Economy (religion).)

(US) The part of a commercial passenger airplane or train reserved for those paying the lower standard fares; economy class.

(archaic) Management of one’s residency.

Adjective

economy (not comparable)

Cheap to run; using minimal resources; representing good value for money.

Anagrams

• monoecy

Source: Wiktionary

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E*con"o*my, n.; pl. Economies. Etym: [F. économie, L. oeconomia household management, fr. Gr. vicus village, E. vicinity) + Vicinity, Nomad.]

1. The management of domestic affairs; the regulation and government of household matters; especially as they concern expense or disbursement; as, a careful economy. Himself busy in charge of the household economies. Froude.

2. Orderly arrangement and management of the internal affairs of a state or of any establishment kept up by production and consumption; esp., such management as directly concerns wealth; as, political economy.

3. The system of rules and regulations by which anything is managed; orderly system of regulating the distribution and uses of parts, conceived as the result of wise and economical adaptation in the author, whether human or divine; as, the animal or vegetable economy; the economy of a poem; the Jewish economy. The position which they [the verb and adjective] hold in the general economy of language. Earle. In the Greek poets, as also in Plautus, we shall see the economy . . . of poems better observed than in Terence. B. Jonson. The Jews already had a Sabbath, which, as citizens and subjects of that economy, they were obliged to keep. Paley.

4. Thrifty and frugal housekeeping; management without loss or waste; frugality in expenditure; prudence and disposition to save; as, a housekeeper accustomed to economy but not to parsimony. Political economy. See under Political.

Syn.

– Economy, Frugality, Parsimony. Economy avoids all waste and extravagance, and applies money to the best advantage; frugality cuts off indulgences, and proceeds on a system of saving. The latter conveys the idea of not using or spending superfluously, and is opposed to lavishness or profusion. Frugality is usually applied to matters of consumption, and commonly points to simplicity of manners; parsimony is frugality carried to an extreme, involving meanness of spirit, and a sordid mode of living. Economy is a virtue, and parsimony a vice.

I have no other notion of economy than that it is the parent to liberty and ease. Swift. The father was more given to frugality, and the son to riotousness [luxuriousness]. Golding.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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