A.Word.A.Day --pinchgut

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Mar 2, 2017

This week’s theme
Words having nautical origins

This week’s words
offing
jury-rig
slush fund
pinchgut
jettison

Pinchgut Island (former name of Fort Denison, on Sydney Harbor), named so because a man was sentenced here for a week on a ration of bread and water

Photo: Howard Mitchell

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

pinchgut

PRONUNCIATION:

(PINCH-guht)

MEANING:

noun: A miserly person.
adjective: Miserly.

ETYMOLOGY:

Originally, a pinchgut was someone who didn’t give enough food to a ship’s crew. Earliest documented use: 1615.

USAGE:

“Even Sifter Sol, a pinchgut gold panner who rarely parted with a penny, bought a bottle.”
Maxine Schur; Gullible Gus; Clarion Books; 2009.

See more usage examples of pinchgut in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. -Dr. Seuss, author and illustrator (2 Mar 1904-1991)

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