note/warning
op has some wild questions and ideas, looking at their profile. this post is likely just bait.
op has zero interest in actually engaging in discussion.
op has some wild questions and ideas, looking at their profile. this post is likely just bait.
op has zero interest in actually engaging in discussion.
where are you getting your original definition?
miser /mī′zər/
### noun
1. One who lives very meagerly in order to hoard money.
2. A greedy or avaricious person.
3. A wretched person; a person afflicted by any great misfortune.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition • More at [Wordnik](https://www.wordnik.com/words/miser)
just because there is no equivalent word for miser in the Chinese language, as someone who infatuates over the past and grumpy about the present, doesn't mean the word does not exist in the English language.
chinese? wtf are you talking about?
I literally asked where your definition of miser is coming from. its not a definition ive heard before. how does china relate to that?!
it feels like the English language has become simpler in vocabulary, like Chinese language, since 2017
oh. youre just baiting. sorry for engaging with sincerity
what makes you think I'm baiting? I recommend you learning German or Japanese languages, or even Modern Hebrew (compared to Hebrew from the Roman era), rather than Chinese language.
I dont want to get into a massive comment chain about basically nothing.
Engage with the discussion?
what's your question?
“Miser is a grumpy person who lives in the past, instead of the present”, was the definition people used in the US before 2016.
I literally cited a dictionary. Ill assume youre being obtuse on purpose at this point, engaging in bad faith.
cite a dictionary from before 2016, instead, that's not online
ok good bye.
the definition for miser somehow, and some when, changed from "grumpy person who lives in the past", to "someone stingy over money and is cheapskate".
Yes. But where did you see this? what gave you that definition?
Some vague memory is not valid.
youve had your question answered. why are you arguing?
The basis of your premise is factually wrong.
just because 'the definition for miser somehow, and some when, changed from “grumpy person who lives in the past”, to “someone stingy over money and is cheapskate”' is not mentioned elsewhere, does not make it false.
i give up. you cant cite any place that has ever given that definition. live your life thinking some random word changed definitions. live your life using the word incorrectly.
good luck.
I've lived in the US since my birth here in 1991. I have never heard the definition you are claiming.
Etymology is the history of words. Here is a page about "miser": https://www.etymonline.com/word/miser
It seems like you're baiting because we have never heard this definition before:
A miser is someone who is infatuated with the past, and is grumpy about the present
Did you get it from an AI chatbot?
"Miser is a grumpy person who lives in the past, instead of the present", was the definition people used in the US before 2016.
In English this would describe a traditionalist, or even just a conservative. Also, maybe a nostalgist...but that one is very rarely used.
“Miser is a grumpy person who lives in the past, instead of the present”, was the definition people used in the US before 2016.
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.
miser is not the same as "greedy old penny-pincher"
Upon what evidence do you make this assertion? It's always meant your "current" definition across my several decades of life.
As a miser myself I've never heard the word used to mean anything but cheapskate/stingy.
When looking at the natural evolution of languages (use turns to convention turns to rules), one must remember that the misers that were poor probably didn't survive, procreate, and thrive as much as those who did.
Social darwinism, man. Assholes proliferate 🤷
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