different between measly vs niggardly

English

Etymology

measle (“singular of measles”) +? -y; the word measle is either from Middle Dutch masel (“a blister filled with blood; a pustule, a skin blemish”), or Middle Low German masel (“a red skin blemish”), from Proto-Germanic *masuraz (“a knot or scar in wood; a knarl”), from *mas-, *m?s- (“a spot; a sore; a scar”), from Proto-Indo-European *mos- (“a skin sore”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?mi?zli/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?mizli/
• Hyphenation: meas?ly

Adjective

measly (comparative measlier, superlative measliest)

1. Particularly of pigs or pork: infected with larval tapeworms or trichinae (parasitic roundworms). [from late 16th c.]
   • 1847, William Youatt, The Pig: A Treatise on the Breeds, Management, Feeding, and Medical Treatment, of Swine; with Directions for Salting Pork, and Curing Bacon and Hams, page 113:

     Then take five or six apples, pick out the cores and fill up the holes thus made with flour of brimstone; stop up the holes and cast in the apples to the measly hog.

2. Of a person: infected with measles.
   • 1902, The Epworth Herald

     A measly boy, he looked like a tramp, probably one of the street boys from the village, just walked up here and made himself at home, and when I told him to leave, he wouldn't.

3. (figuratively, informal) Small (especially contemptibly small) in amount. [from mid 19th c.]

   Synonyms: miserable, paltry, trifling

   • 2004, Richard Rizun, Ora, Trafford Publishing (?ISBN)

     The visiting tourists eagerly forked over a measly two dollars per group to their guides as payment for their services. This amount was measly sum to the givers, but a princely sum to the takers.

   • 2010, Marylee Daniel Mitcham, Blacktime Song by Rosalie Wolfe, Strategic Book Publishing (?ISBN), page 127:

     So it wasn't a hotel, as I said in my novel, just a measly motel. But to me it was like the First measly motel, and I remember laughing about the things I was saying straight from my unconscious to both his and God's ear.

Translations

References

• “measly”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

Anagrams

• Lameys, Leamys, Lemays, Maleys, Mayles, Mealys, amyles, samely, yealms

English

Etymology

niggard +? -ly

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?n???dli/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?n???dli/

Adjective

niggardly (comparative more niggardly, superlative most niggardly)

1. Withholding for the sake of meanness; stingy, miserly.

   Synonyms: miserly, stingy; see also Thesaurus:stingy

   • 1609, Joseph Hall, (paraphrasing Ambrose? in) "No Peace with Rome", in Josiah Pratt (editor), The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God, Joseph Hall, D. D., Vol. IX. Polemical Works, London, (1808), page 57:

     [W]here the owner of the house will be bountiful, it is not for the steward to be niggardly.

   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 47

     They were not niggardly, these tramps, and he who had money did not hesitate to share it among the rest.

   • 1958, John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society (1998 edition), ?ISBN, p. 186:

     This manifests itself in an implacable tendency to provide an opulent supply of some things and a niggardly yield of others.

Usage notes

• This term may cause offence, especially in the US, as it is easily confused with niggerly, an adverbial form of the racial slur nigger. The two words are etymologically unrelated.

Translations

Adverb

niggardly (comparative more niggardly, superlative most niggardly)

1. (now rare) In a parsimonious way; sparingly, stingily.
   • , New York 2001, p.105:

     because many families are compelled to live niggardly, exhaust and undone by great dowers, none shall be given at all, or very little […].

Translations

Further reading

• Controversies about the word "niggardly" on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References