Dictionary

niggardliness en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree English niggardly Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse English -ness English niggardliness From niggardly + -ness.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) The state of being niggardly; parsimony.
   • Whatever obscurity or incongruity attaches to the statements I have quoted, those who made them are manifestly at one as to the two cardinal facts, that Cavendish was, for the first forty years of his life, a poor man, and for the last thirty-nine an unusually wealthy one. No one seems able to assign a reason for his father’s niggardliness towards him. There is good reason, however, for believing that the cause of Lord Charles Cavendish’s parsimony to his son has been misapprehended. 1851, George Wilson, The Life of the Hon. Henry Cavendish, page 161:

Forms

Synonyms

niggardise · niggardship · niggardness · niggardry · niggardy