Noah Webster on "Economy"

At our 2009 Missions Conference, Dr. Cortez Cooper reviewed Noah Webster's 1828 multiple definitions of the word economy: ECON'OMY, n. [L. oeconomia; Gr. house, and law, rule.] 

1. Primarily, the management, regulation and government of a family or the concerns of a household. 

2. The management of pecuniary concerns or the expenditure of money. Hence,

3. A frugal and judicious use of money; that management which expends money to advantage,and incurs no waste; frugality in the necessary expenditure of money. It differs from parsimony, which implies an improper saving of expense. Economy includes also a prudent management of all the means by which property is saved or accumulated; a judicious application of time, of labor, and of the instruments of labor. 

4. The disposition or arrangement of any work; as the economy of a poem. 

5. A system of rules, regulations, rites and ceremonies; as the Jewish economy. 

6. The regular operation of nature in the generation, nutrition and preservation of animals or plants; as animal economy; vegetable economy. 

7. Distribution or due order of things. 

8. Judicious and frugal management of public affairs; as political economy. 

9. System of management; general regulation and disposition of the affairs of a state or nation, or of any department of government. 

Dr. Cooper observed that we reserve the word almost exclusively for the ninth definition, the management and regulation of a nation's financial and commercial system. Had our nation paid more attention to the earlier uses of the word perhaps we would not currently face enormous national deficits and debt. I suspect imprudent national spending reflects the disordered economic life of American households. 

We would do well to recover this use of the word: economy is "a frugal and judicious use of money; that management which expends money to advantage, and incurs no waste; frugality in the necessary expenditure of money . . .  Economy includes also a prudent management of all the means by which property is saved or accumulated; a judicious application of time, of labor, and of the instruments of labor."