Where does “parsimonious” come from?
Parsimonious comes from English parsimony plus the suffix -ous, which derives from Latin parsimonia, based on pars meaning part or portion, with formative suffixes -ia and -ivus.
parsimonious (English): Exhibiting parsimony; sparing in the expenditure...
Definitions
- Exhibiting parsimony; sparing in the expenditure...
Ancestry of “parsimonious”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | parsimony | Great reluctance to spend money unnecessarily;... |
| 2 | Middle English | parcimonie | — |
| 3 | Middle French | parsimonie | small saving |
| 4 | Latin | parsimōnia | frugality, thrift, parsimony |
| 5 | Latin | -monia | Forms abstract nouns from adjectives and possibly... |
| 6 | Latin | -monium | Forms collective nouns and nouns designating... |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -monyom | — |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -mō | Creates agent nouns from verbs |