A miser is someone who is infatuated with the past, and is grumpy about the present, so when did it come to mean someone who is a cheapskate and stingy over money? (lemmy.today)

submitted 2 months ago by Sparky@lemmy.today to c/AskUSA@discuss.online

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A miser is someone who is infatuated with the past, and is grumpy about the present, (compared to depressive, or someone who is infatuated with the future, and depressed about the present), so when did it come to mean someone who is a cheapskate and stingy over money?

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago (8 children)

In English this would describe a traditionalist, or even just a conservative. Also, maybe a nostalgist...but that one is very rarely used.

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[+] Sparky@lemmy.today [S] -14 points 2 months ago (7 children)

“Miser is a grumpy person who lives in the past, instead of the present”, was the definition people used in the US before 2016.

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[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Yeah, no. Charles Dickens used the word to describe his character Ebenezer Scrooge as a greedy old penny-pincher, in A Christmas Carol. That book was written in the 1800's, and it was a commonly used word even then.

The definition you're using, simply doesn't apply. That's not what that word has ever meant.

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