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parsimony|ˈpɑːsɪmənɪ|
Also 5– parci-, (7 percemonie).
[ad. L. parsimōnia or parcimōnia, f. parc-ĕre, ppl. stem pars- to spare, save. Cf. It. parsimonia (Florio 1598), F. parcimonie (1567 in Hatz.-Darm.), parsimonie (Cotgr. 1611); adm. in Dict. Acad. 1798 as parsimonie, altered 1835 to parcimonie. Latin scholars appear to agree that parsimonia was the actual spelling in classical L.]
Carefulness in the employment of money or material resources; saving or economic disposition. a. In good or neutral sense.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) III. 35 The nowble man Ligurgus..movenge that parcimony scholde be hade of alle men, leste the labore of cheuallry scholde faile thro plente. c1540tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camden No. 36) I. 90 A prince of great parsimonie, and in noe respecte ambitious. 1604R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Parsimonie, thriftines, sparing. 1623Cockeram, Parsimonie, thriftinesse, good husbandrie. 1631T. Powell Tom All Trades (1876) 170 Without profusenesse, or too much percemonie. 1642Ames Marrow Div. 378 Parsimony is a vertue whereby we make only honest and necessary expences. 1776Adam Smith W.N. v. iii. (1869) II. 509 The want of parsimony in time of peace, imposes the necessity of contracting debt in time of war. 1865Tylor Early Hist. Man. ix. 268 In..all domestic matters, they use the ancient parsimony.
b. In dyslogistic sense: Stinginess, niggardliness.
1561Eden Arte Nauig. Pref., By miserable couetousnes and parcimonie. 1673Lady's Call. ii. iii. §5 This is one of the most pernicious parsimonies imaginable. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 281 Nor be with harmful Parsimony won. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull iii. vii, It is impossible to march up close to the frontiers of frugality, without entering the territories of parsimony. 1782F. Burney Cecilia v. viii, By parsimony, vulgarity and meanness [he should] render riches contemptible. 1871Daily News 3 Jan., What is not just economy may fairly be charged with the opprobrious name of parsimony. 1896Times 1 Sept. 7/4 Due to ill-judged Parliamentary interference and to the misplaced parcimony of the Treasury.
c. fig. With reference to immaterial things. Also, the principle that organisms tend towards economy of action in learning or in fulfilling their needs.
1656Blount Glossogr., Parsimony,..brevity or sparingness in the use of words. 1667South Serm. I. 286 That Parsimony in God's Worship were the worst Husbandry in the World. 1876Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. ii. 40 Dante's parsimony of epithet. 1931D. K. Adams in Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. XXII. 153 This economy upon repetition or, better, the property (we shall call it parsimony) of which it is simply one manifestation, is a fundamental property of a certain class of bodies. Ibid., I think that parsimony is a property of all organisms. 1948E. R. Hilgard Theories of Learning xi. 295 The process of need satiation is regulated by a principle called ‘parsimony’. That is a preference for short-cuts, described by others as the principle of least action. 1955Sci. Amer. June 68/1 This is the grand overriding law of the parsimony of nature: every action within a system is executed with the least possible expenditure of energy.
d. law of parsimony: the logical principle that no more causes or forces should be assumed than are necessary to account for the facts. Also parsimony, principle of parsimony.
1837Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. xxxix. (1870) II. 395 The law of Parcimony, which forbids, without necessity, the multiplication of entities, powers, principles, or causes; above all, the postulation of an unknown force, where a known impotence can account for the effect. 1864Bowen Logic i. 17 By the law of parsimony..language makes up its millions of names or designations out of comparatively few words. 1890C. L. Morgan Anim. Life & Intell. (1891) 174 We do not know enough about the causes of variation to be rigidly bound by the law of parcimony. 1933J. C. Flügel Hundred Years Psychol. ii. 124 The ‘law of parsimony’, according to which we must always explain animal behaviour in terms of the simplest mental processes that will account for the facts. 1957R. K. Merton Social Theory (rev. ed.) viii. 259 The theoretical objective of parsimony, found whenever several empirical generalizations are derived from a more general formulation. 1970M. H. Marx Learning: Theories i. i. 16/2 The principle of parsimony, often called William of Occam's razor or Lloyd Morgan's canon,..is a rough guideline to the acceptability of hypotheses and principles. Ibid. 17/1 The failure to accept the principle of parsimony results in the overloading of relatively untested..ideas. 1972Encycl. Psychol. I. 202/2 The essential similarity between classical and operant conditioning has led students to pose questions about the parsimony or necessity of more than one principle to account for this type of learning. |