Thrifty means clever at saving money without being unkind about it. A thrifty household, thrifty habits, thrifty by nature.
It is approving where mean and stingy are not — a thrifty person spends carefully rather than refusing to spend. Note thrift; and that thrift originally meant prosperity, from thrive, so being thrifty was the way to thrive before it was the way to save.
1adjectivethriftyClever at saving money.
“My thrifty grandmother saved every piece of string and reused old wrapping paper.”
synonyms: frugal, economical
thrifty is a quality of economy.
Also accepted in games: frugal
Thrift plus -y. Thrift comes from thrive and once meant prosperity rather than economy.
Proto-Indo-European
*terp-
Middle English
thrifty
English, today
thrifty
From Middle English thrifty, threfty, thryfty, þrifti, equivalent to thrift + y.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA