Penurious

Now here's another odd WOTD; Dictionary.com describes penurious with two meanings - 'mean, miserly' and 'poor'. I see these two meanings dependant upon whether you are the subject or the object of the word. It is my opinion that many people who are judged mean or miserly are not poor at all, although they may describe themselves thus. On the other hand, many people who are poor are so because they are too generous.

I am not, and have never been, penurious in either sense of the word. Neil and I love to save and as I speak we have 7 money pots around the house, most of which are empty right now but will fill up with holiday savings. We love breaking open the Terramundi and seeing how our £2 coins have added up over the year. This year Neil had about £250 in his. 

I was confused because mean and poor are not synonyms, so I looked the WOTD in the good old Penguin English Dictionary. It describes penurious as 'poor or frugal'; of course it is the adjective of penury, meaning extreme poverty, again from the Latin. The other meaning (mean, miserly) has been around since 1630 so I don't think I'm going to change it now!

A real favourite for dinner - sausages, JP with GC, mushrooms. Ice cream. Neil's 'radio 7' music mix from Frankie Laine, Tony Banks, Marillion, Level 42, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan and Be-Bop Deluxe,