parsimony

From Middle English parcimonie, from Middle French parsimonie, from Latin parsimōnia (“frugality, sparingness”), from pars-, past participle stem of parcere (“to spare”), + -monia, suffix signifying action, state, or condition.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑɹ.sə.ˌmoʊ.ni/
• Hyphenation: par‧si‧mony

parsimony (usually uncountable, plural parsimonies)

1. Great reluctance to spend money unnecessarily.
   • 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations:

     Parsimony, and not industry, is the immediate cause of the increase of capital. Industry, indeed, provides the subject which parsimony accumulates. But whatever industry might acquire, if parsimony did not save and store up, the capital would never be the greater.

   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 9:

     If mere parsimony could have made a man rich, Sir Pitt Crawley might have become very wealthy […]

2. (by extension) The principle of using the fewest resources or explanations to solve a problem.

• see stinginess
• see also economy, frugality, Thesaurus:stingy and Thesaurus:frugal

• parsimonious

• Occam's razor

• parsimony in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• parsimony in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.