mingy
English edit
Etymology edit
Uncertain. Perhaps a blend of mean + stingy.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
mingy (comparative mingier, superlative mingiest)
- (colloquial) Mean, miserly, stingy.
- 1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter XV, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, authorized British edition, London: Martin Secker […], published February 1932 (May 1932 printing), →OCLC:
- 'And weren't you happy as an officer and a gentleman, when your Colonel was dead?'
'No! They were a mingy lot.' He laughed suddenly. 'The Colonel used to say: Lad, the English middle classes have to chew every mouthful thirty times because their guts are so narrow, a bit as big as a pea would give them a stoppage. They're the mingiest set of ladylike snipe ever invented: full of conceit of themselves, frightened even if their boot-laces aren't correct, rotten as high game, and always in the right. That's what finishes me up. Kow-tow, kow-tow, arse-licking till their tongues are tough: yet they're always in the right. Prigs on top of everything. Prigs! A generation of ladylike prigs with half a ball each--'
- 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 298:
- After the Liberation Mrs Crewe kept on being as mingy as before with the food; and wouldn't let Harold buy any new clothes.
- 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 413:
- Now all that, in its mingy way, is logical enough.
Synonyms edit
Translations edit
mean, miserly
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