parsimony
/ˈpɑːsɪməni
/noun [mass noun]
Extreme unwillingness to spend money or use resources: a great tradition of public design has been shattered by government parsimony...
- He argues that a ruler who wishes to avoid a reputation for parsimony will find that he needs to spend lavishly and ostentatiously.
- If it seems that way, it is only because of the puritanism, the pious emotional parsimony, of our American era.
- We have since paid a terrible price for that parsimony, as those now attending the inquests into the deaths of their loved ones at Paddington will attest.
Synonyms
meanness, miserliness, parsimoniousness, niggardliness, close-fistedness, closeness, penuriousness, penny-pinching, cheese-paring, illiberality, frugality
informal stinginess, minginess, tightness, tight-fistedness
North American cheapness
archaic nearness
Phrases
principle (or law) of parsimony
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin parsimonia, parcimonia, from parcere 'be sparing'.