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Origin and history of penurious

penurious(adj.)

1590s, "in want, needy, poverty-stricken," a sense now obsolete, from penury + -ous, or else from Medieval Latin penuriosus, from Latin penuria "penury." The meaning "parsimonious, excessively saving or sparing in the use of money" is attested by 1630s. Related: Penuriously; penuriousness.

Penurious means literally in penury, but always feeling and acting as though one were in poverty, saving beyond reason; the word is rather stronger than parsimonious, and has perhaps rather more reference to the treatment of others. One may be parsimonious or penurious, through habits formed in times of having little, without being really miserly. [Century Dictionary]

also from 1590s

Entries linking to penurious

penury(n.)

"extreme poverty, indigence, destitution," c. 1400, penurie, from Latin penuria "want, need; scarcity," related to pæne "nearly, almost, practically," which is of uncertain origin.

-ous

word-forming element making adjectives from nouns, meaning "having, full of, having to do with, doing, inclined to," from Old French -ous, -eux, from Latin -osus (compare -ose (1)). In chemistry, "having a lower valence than forms expressed in -ic."

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    medicine
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