niggardy

English

Etymology

From Middle English nygardie; equivalent to niggard +‎ -y.

Noun

niggardy (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) Niggardliness.
    • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Shypmans Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, folio lxxv, verso, lines 172, column 1:
      But yet me greueth moſte his nygardye
      Yet I grieve most for his niggardliness
    • 1922, John McKenzie, Hindu Ethics: A Historical and Critical Essay, page 24:
      Likewise, greatly making thyself naked, thou fastenest on a person in dreams, O niggard, baffling the plan and design of a man.
      Departure from the niggardy is praised : Thou hast left niggardy, hast found what is pleasant; […]

References
  • niggardy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
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