miserly

English

Etymology

From miser +‎ -ly, attested from the 1540s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪ.zə(ɹ).li/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

miserly (comparative more miserly, superlative most miserly)

1. Like a miser, very or objectionably cautious with money.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stingy

   • 1991, Art Spiegelman, Maus I: My Father Bleeds History, New York: Pantheon Books, page 131:

     It's something that worries me about the book I'm doing about him... In some ways he's just like the racist caricature of the miserly old Jew.

   • 2005, J. M. Coetzee, “Three”, in Slow Man, New York: Viking, →ISBN, page 20:

     What could be more selfish, more miserly—this in specific is what gnaws at him—than dying childless, terminating the line, subtracting oneself from the great work of generation? Worse than miserly, in fact: unnatural.

Derived terms

• miserlily
• miserliness
• non-miserly
• unmiserliness
• unmiserly

Translations

stingy

• Arabic: بَخِيل (baḵīl)
• Belarusian: скупы (skupy)
• Bulgarian: стиснат (bg) (stisnat), скъпернически (bg) (skǎperničeski)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 吝嗇／吝啬 (zh) (lìnsè), 小氣／小气 (zh) (xiǎoqì), (informal) 摳門／抠门 (zh) (kōumén), 摳／抠 (zh) (kōu)

• Czech: lakomý (cs) m
• Danish: gnieragtig, gerrig, nærig (da)
• Esperanto: avarula
• Finnish: saita (fi), itara (fi), pihi (fi), nuuka (fi)
• French: avare (fr), pingre (fr), chiche (fr), radin (fr)
• Galician: mesquiño, avarento
• German: geizig (de), knauserig (de), knausrig, gierig (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: φειδωλός (pheidōlós)

• Hindi: कंजूस (hi) (kañjūs)
• Irish: ocrach
• Italian: avaro (it) m, tirchio (it) m
• Japanese: けちな (ja) (kechi na), 吝嗇な (ja) (りんしょくな, rinshoku na)
• Korean: (attributive) 인색한 (insaek-han), (predicative) 인색하다 (insaek-hada)
• Low German:

  German Low German: giezig, gnietschig, gnittschig, knickerig, neetsch, näätsch, nehrig, nährig, netig, nötig, pennschieterig

• Old English: hnēaw
• Ottoman Turkish: پیس (pis)
• Persian: خسیس (fa) (xasis)
• Polish: skąpy (pl)
• Portuguese: mesquinho (pt), pão-duro (pt)
• Romanian: ciufút (ro)
• Russian: скупо́й (ru) (skupój), ска́редный (ru) (skárednyj), жа́дный (ru) (žádnyj), прижи́мистый (ru) (prižímistyj)
• Scots: near the bane
• Serbo-Croatian: škrt (sh)
• Slovak: lakomý m, skúpy m
• Spanish: mezquino (es), tacaño (es), avaro (es)
• Urdu: کنجوس (kañjūs)
• Volapük: lavarik (vo)
• Yiddish: קמצניש (kamtsonish)

Further reading

• “miserly”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “miserly”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Simerly, misrely