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Snudging Cheapskates and Magnificent Profusion: The Conceptual Baggage of ‘Mean’ and ‘Generous’

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The Language of Money and Debt

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Abstract

The way people behave with money communicates a great deal about their character. In this chapter, we examine the ‘conceptual baggage’ (McConnell-Ginet, Language, 84(3), 497–527, 2008) for synonyms of ‘mean’ and ‘generous’. Drawing data from The Historical Thesaurus, we show that generosity is connected to positive assessments across a range of fields, including appearance, morality and space, while meanness is similarly widely disparaged. Drawing out the ideological connections between the lexical items and their cultural baggage, we argue that ‘wealth’ operates as a synonym for goodness, while ‘poverty’ functions as a synonym of badness. In order to challenge this, we suggest that attention be paid to ‘relative generosity’ and demonstrate how results from data analysis can be used to critically assess the prevailing economic orthodoxy.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Media, Culture and Language, University of Roehampton, London, UK

    Annabelle Mooney & Evi Sifaki

Authors
  1. Annabelle Mooney
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  2. Evi Sifaki
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Media, Culture and Language, University of Roehampton, London, United Kingdom

    Annabelle Mooney

  2. Department of Media, Culture and Language, University of Roehampton, London, United Kingdom

    Evi Sifaki

Appendices

Appendix 1

  • Word categories from Historical Thesaurus.

  • The following are the hierarchy groups which were used.

  • Mean [the mind/pertaining to possession/retaining/niggardly mean]

  • Be niggardly of 02.06.10.02 vt

  • Be niggardly/mean 02.06.10.02 vi

  • Be sparing/frugal 02.06.10.01 vi

  • In niggardly/mean manner 02.06.10.02 av

  • Niggardliness/meanness 02.06.10.02 n

  • Niggardly/mean 02.06.10.02 aj

  • Sparing/frugal 02.06.10.01 aj

  • Sparingly/frugally 02.06.10.01 av

  • Sparingness/frugality 02.06.10.01 n

  • Use sparingly/frugally 02.06.10.01 vt

  • Generous [Of/pertaining to giving/Liberal in giving]

  • Abundant: liberal/unstinted in quantity 01.16.06.04.01|06 aj

  • Be liberal 02.06.12.02 vi

  • Give liberally 02.06.12.02 vt

  • Liberal giving 02.06.12.02 n

  • Liberal in giving 02.06.12.02 aj

  • Liberally 02.06.12.02 av

  • Liberally 02.06.12.02 ph

Appendix 2: Data

1.1 Small Amount

Austerity, behusband, cheese-paring, chinch, chincher, chincherd, chinchery, chincy, cumin-splitting, cut-down, economic, economical, economically, economist, economize, economizer, economy, flay a flint, flay-flint, flint, flint paring, flint skinning, halfpennyworth, housewife, housewifeliness, housewifely, housewifery, housewifeship, inch out, lick one’s own knife, live at low sail, make dainty of, make pottage of flint, managery, managing, mesnage, mesnagery, mincingly, moderation, nip-cake, nipcheese, nip-crust, nip-farthing, nipper, parer, pelt, penny-peeler, penny-pincher, penny-purse, picey, pinch-penny, pinch-plum, pynepenny, scaly, scant, scanted, scanting, scantingly, scantle, scantly, scanty, scarce, scarcehead, scarcely, scarcity, scarceness, scrape, scrape-good, scrapeling, scrape-pelf, scrape-penny, scrape-scall, scraping, scrat, scrib, scrimp, share-penny, shave, skin, skin a flint, skinflint, skinflintiness, skinflintly, skinflinty, skinny, slimming, snippy, spare, spareful, sparefulness, sparely, sparesome, sparing, sparingly, sparingness, sparseness, spary, spin out, split farthing, stewardly, stinting, stintingly, stinty, stop it out, tape out, unlavish,, unwasteful, unwastefully, war economy, wire draw, wire drawer.

1.2 Large Amount

Almifluent, ample/amply, bounteous, bounteously, bountiful, bountifully, enumerate, heap, in large, large, largely, largeous, largess/largesse, largificial, lavish, lavishly, lavishness, liberal, liberality, liberally, liberalness, make lavish, munific, munifical, munificence, munificency, munificent, munificently, numerous, plenteous, plenteously, plentiful, plenty, prodig, prodigal, prodigalize, prodigally, prodigious, profuse, profuseness, profusion, profusive, spareless, stintless, transfude, unbounded, unmeasured out, unspared, unsparing, unsparingly, unsparingness, unstinted, unstinting, unstintingly, usurious, wasteful, without stint.

1.3 Narrow Space

Cob, compendious, gnede, gnedely, gnedeship, gnedy, hidebound, hidebounded, narrow-hearted, narrowly, narrow-souled, near, near the bone, nearly, nearness, nig, niggard, niggard (it), niggard cheap, niggardess, niggardise, niggardish, niggardize, niggard-like, niggardliness, niggardling, niggardly, niggardness, niggardous, niggardship, niggardy, niggerality, niggish, niggishly, niggishness, nigh, nighly, nigon, nigonry, nigonship, screw, screwiness, screwy, servility, shave close, skinny, strait, straithead, straitly, straitness.

1.4 Wide Space

Alarge, ample, big-heartedness, enlarge, enlarging, enlargisse, frank, frankly, large, largely, largeness, largeous, largess/largesse, large-heartedness, open, roomly, rumlic, spaciously, unbounded, ungnede, unniggard, unniggardly, unstraitened.

1.5 Body Clenched

Belt-tightening, clam, close, close-fist, close-fisted, close-fistedness, close-handed, closeness, club-fisted, clunchfist, clunch-fisted, clutch fist, clutch fisted, costive, costively, dry-fist, dry-fisted, fast, fast-fingered, fast-handed, fastingly, fastship, fore-handed, frummer, go near hand, gripe-handed, gripple, handfast, hard, hard-fisted, hard-handed, hinch, holding, partan-handed, pinchbeck, pincher, pinch-fart, pinch-fist, pinchfisted, pinching, pinchingly, puck-fist, purse-bound, retentive, scant-handedness, scrimp, scrimping, scrimply, scrimpy, shut-purse, straiten one’s hand, strait-handed, strait-handedness, tenacious, tenacity, tight, tight fistedness, tight-arsed, tight-ass, tight-fisted, tightwad.

1.6 Open Body

Enlarge the hand, free-handed, free-handedness, free-hearted, free-heartedness, loosen the purse strings, open the purse-strings, open-handed, open-handedness, outgiving, outgivingness, room-handed, two-handed, two-handedness, unpinched.

1.7 Low Class

Carl(e), charily, chariness, chary, chintzy, chuff, chuff-cat, chuff-penny, churl, churlish, churlishly, churlishness, cuff, feebly, illiberal, illiberality, illiberalness, mean, morkin-gnoff, unliberal, wretch, wretched, wretchedly, wretchedness.

1.8 High Class

Franchise, free, freedom, freely, freeness, freeship, generosity, generous, generously, genteel, honesty, ingeneousness, liberal, over-freely, over-liberal, over-liberality., princely, real, rich, royal, royally, royalty.

1.9 Bad Morality

Austerity, envious, envy, meany, nithing, nithinghead, wretch.

1.10 Good Morality

Bounteous, bounteously, bounteousness, bountiful, bountifully, bountifulness, bountihead, bountines/bountenes, bounty.

1.11 Bad Appearance

mangy, mingily, mokerard, mucker (up), mucker, muckerer, muckering, muck-monger, muck-rake, muck-raker, muckscrap, muck-thrift, muckworm, shabby, shite-sticks, skinny, sordidity, spare, unhandsome.

Good Appearance

Handsome, insordid, well-favouredly, magnific, magnificence, magnificial, magnificent, magnificently, magnifique, royal, royally.

2.1 Liquid

Effusion, fluent, flush, shower, showerer, showering.

2.2 Keep

Accumulator, bagger, begrudge, begrudging, codger, cormullion, crib, curmudgel, curmudgeon, curmudgeonly, gather to store, gatherer, gripe, gripe-money, gripe-penny, gromwell-gainer, grudge, grudged, grutch, hayne, hoarder, hog-grubber, holdfast, holding, huddle, hugger-mugger, incubo, layer up, money-codger, muglarg, one-way pockets, parcity, parsimonious, parsimoniously, parsimonousness, parsimony, penny-father, poll-groat, providence, provident, providently, rat-hole, salvage, save, save all, saved (up), saver, saving, savingly, savingness, silver-hider, snippy, spare, spare for, spare-good, spare of, spare-penny, sparer, spare-thrift, spele, speling, stick, strange, tenacious, tenacity, thrift, thriftful, thriftily, thrifty, thripple, unbounteous, unindulgent, warner.

2.3 Give

Communicative, communicativeness, dispense, dispensive, erogation, expensive, give away the shirt off one’s back, lavish, make lavish, outgiving, ungright, ungrudging, ungrudgingly, ungrudgingness.

2.4 Unclassified Terms

2.4.1 ‘Mean’

Canny, carking, cheap-skate, Euclionism, frugal, frugalist, frugalities, frugality, frugally, frugalness, hood-pick, Hooverize, Hooverizing, hunger-rot, Jew, Jewish, mise, miser, miserable, miserableness, miserably, miserdom, miserliness, miserly, mising, money-miser, nabal, nabalism, nabalite, nabalitic, penurious, penuriously, penuriousness, penury, sharp nose, Scrooge/scrooge, Scrooglike, Shylockian, Shylocky, sneaking, sneakingly, snidge, snowge, snudge, snudgery, snudging, sore-head, stepmother, stepmotherliness, stepmotherly, stiff, sting-hum, stinge, stingily, stinginess, stingy, volpone, wary, whip the cat.

2.4.2 ‘Generous’

Ambry, frolic, fruitfulness, it is the thought that counts, maundy, push the boat out.

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Mooney, A., Sifaki, E. (2017). Snudging Cheapskates and Magnificent Profusion: The Conceptual Baggage of ‘Mean’ and ‘Generous’. In: Mooney, A., Sifaki, E. (eds) The Language of Money and Debt. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57568-1_5

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