different between niggard vs niggardy

English

Etymology

From Middle English nigard, nygard (“miser”), from nig (“niggardly person”), possibly of Scandinavian origin; compare Old Norse hn?ggr (“miserly, stingy”). Possibly cognate to niggle (“miser”). Compare German Knicker (“niggard”), knickerig (“niggardly”). Not related to nigger.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): [?n???d]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [?n???d]

Homophone: niggered

Adjective

niggard (comparative more niggard, superlative most niggard)

1. Sparing; stinting; parsimonious.
2. Miserly or stingy.
   • 1755, Tobias Smollett, The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote, translated from the original Spanish of Cervantes, Volume II, Chapter III:

     It was, however, the pleasure of his niggard and unhappy fortune, that in seeking a place proper for his accommodation, he and Dapple tumbled into a deep and very dark pit, among a number of old buildings.

   • 1852, William and Robert Chambers, Chambers' Edinburgh Journal:

     [H]is heart swelled within him, as he sat at the head of his own table, on the occasion of the house-warming, dispensing with no niggard hand the gratuitous viands and unlimited beer, which were at once to symbolise and inaugurate the hospitality of his mansion.

Noun

niggard (plural niggards)

1. A miser or stingy person; a skinflint.
   • 1618, John Taylor, The Pennyles Pilgrimage or The Money-lesse Perambulation of John Taylor:

     All his pleasures were social; and while health and fortune smiled upon him, he was no niggard either of his time or talents to those who needed them.

   • 1955, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, Book VI, Chapter 6 "Many Partings":

     ‘No niggard are you, Éomer,’ said Aragorn, ‘to give thus to Gondor the fairest thing in your realm!’

2. A false bottom in a grate, used for saving fuel.
   • 1833, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Godolphin

     It was evening: he ordered a fire and lights; and, leaning his face on his hand as he contemplated the fitful and dusky upbreakings of the flame through the bars of the niggard and contracted grate […]

   • 1851, From a catalog of the Great Exhibition

     Cooking apparatus, adapted for an opening eight feet wide, by five feet high, and containing an open-fire roasting range, with sliding spit-racks and winding cheek or niggard;

Synonyms

• (miser or stingy person): See also Thesaurus:miser

Verb

niggard (third-person singular simple present niggards, present participle niggarding, simple past and past participle niggarded)

1. (intransitive) To hoard; to act stingily.

Usage notes

• This word is unrelated to the racial slur nigger (a corruption of the Spanish word negro (“black”)), but some in the United States have taken offense at the word's use due to the phonetic similarity between the words.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:amass

Derived terms

• niggardise
• niggardish
• niggardly
• niggardliness
• niggardness
• niggardous
• niggardship
• niggardry
• niggardy

Related terms

• nig
• niggish
• niggle
• nigon

Translations

References

Anagrams

• draggin', garding, grading

English

Etymology

niggard +? -y

Noun

niggardy (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Niggardliness.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

   • 1922, John McKenzie, Hindu Ethics: A Historical and Critical Essay, page 24:

     Likewise, greatly making thyself naked, thou fastenest on a person in dreams, O niggard, baffling the plan and design of a man.

     Departure from the niggardy is praised : Thou hast left niggardy, hast found what is pleasant; […]

References

• niggardy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.