Judy from Tallahassee, Florida, asks why spendthrift means someone who spends money freely, when thrift now suggests careful saving. The older sense of thrift was acquired wealth or prosperity, something that comes from thriving, so a spendthrift spends that wealth. Plainer old cousins include spend-all and dingthrift, someone who dings, or damages, their savings. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Why Does “Spendthrift” Include “Thrift” If It’s About Wasting Money?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Judy from Tallahassee, Florida.
Hi, Judy. Welcome to the show.
Hey, Judy.
Thank you.
I have a friend whose husband was a journalist and a great wordsmith, and he used to describe his wife as a spendthrift. And I know this woman well, and Sally can spend money like nobody’s business. And she enjoys it, and she’s generous, and all that type of thing. But for him to call her a spendthrift, I always found kind of ironic because anytime it had the word thrift in it, it sounded to me like somebody who could be thrifty. So I just wondered where the idea of a spendthrift came from.
Yeah, it’s a confusing word, isn’t it?
It is. And the key to it is that there’s an old sense of thrift that means acquired wealth or prosperity. And the light bulb for me, when it comes to that word, was learning that it’s related to the word thrive. So it’s the result of thriving. Thrift is the result of thriving. But over time, thrift has come to mean being very careful with your money and your wealth. And so if you’re spending your thrift, then you’re spending your wealth. Does that make sense?
It does, but that’s very surprising to me.
Yeah. You may have encountered thrift in that usage as another name for a savings bank or a savings and loan. Sometimes they’re called thrifts.
Yes, I remember that. There’s an old term, by the way, that’s very similar, which doesn’t have this confusion. It’s spend-all. Somebody who is a spend-all.
That seems to make more sense to me.
Sounds like Sally is a spend-all.
Yes.
Yeah, she goes for those spend-orphins, huh?
Yes. The high you get when you’re spending money. And there’s an even better one that you might like enough to keep using. It’s an earlier word, and it’s kind of fallen out of fashion, but it’s a ding thrift.
A ding thrift.
Yeah. Ding thrift. The ding part basically meaning that they’re doing damage to their savings.
Is that right?
Oh, there we go. Now that makes sense, too. Ding thrift.
Yeah, so if you’re spending your thrift or you’re dinging your thrift, you’re spending a lot of money. Yeah, think of the expression to if you ding somebody for a fee or ding somebody for a contribution, it means you’re asking them for a fee or a contribution.
Fantastic. Well, it sounds like Sally’s fun to be with.
Oh, she’s a dear friend, and I’m very thankful for her in my life.
Oh, that’s nice.
That’s nice, Judy. Well, thank you for calling.
Thanks, Judy. Take care now.
Thank you. Bye-bye now.
All right. Bye-bye.
Spend all, ding thrift, spend thrift. Ding thrift I like a lot.
Right? Because there’s a suggestion there with the ding about you’re going a little nuts with spending this money.
Well, it makes me think of ding bat, too.
Right. Exactly.
