'Do you know what a spendthrift is? Most don’t!' blog discussion

GreenGreenGrass-of-home

I think you're probably right, Zebedee. It's odd that neither my hard-copy OED nor OED online gives any etymological background on the word.

The Online Etymology Dictionary gives this:

c.1600, from spend + thrift in sense of "savings, profits, wealth." Replaced earlier scattergood (1570s) and spend-all (1550s).

geri1965_2

I knew what it meant. Probably due to my dad accusing my mum of being one, constantly! (which she is, but she married a miser - no wonder they got divorced!)

tylerdurden

I always thought that the meaning cam from spending thrift, the opposite of thrifty.

Maybe Martin should as hotforwords (I cant post the link) she does some entertaining etymological videos on youtube.

lilian1977

I knew this and was then very surprised when I asked around and hardly anyone else did! The old definition of it does make sense though!

DJ_Mike

The word 'thrift' has an archaic/obsolete meaning of "prosperity", i.e. something that flourishes. So from that you can take spendthrift to mean someone who flourishes in spending, be it for good or bad. You could, of course, be a spendthrift in a way that actually nets you a lot of money, I think it just came to mean someone who wasn't very good with money. But probably too archaic of a word to be used much anymore. I think "spend-a-holic" or "shop-a-holic" has become more commonplace.

eleanora_

Am I the only one who's disappointed by the sheer numbers of people who don't know what this word means? Surely it's not that obscure!

Sceptic001

jay-1 wrote: »

Spendthrift is an antonym - a word that means the opposite.

The opposite of what?
Why is there no smilie for confused? :confused further:

jay-1

Sorry ignore me -not having a good day!

GreenGreenGrass-of-home

DJ_Mike wrote: »

The word 'thrift' has an archaic/obsolete meaning of "prosperity", i.e. something that flourishes. So from that you can take spendthrift to mean someone who flourishes in spending, be it for good or bad.

I'm not sure Mike is right is saying that a spendthrift 'flourishes in spending'.

OED describes the origin of 'thrift' as:

prosperity, acquired wealth or success

So I'd guess that 'spendthrift' means (or meant) spending either your own savings, or savings/wealth that you've acquired.

GreenGreenGrass-of-home

jay-1 wrote: »

Sorry ignore me -not having a good day!

I knew what you meant, Jay. You were talking about a single-word oxymoron, yes?