(Sir, Augustine Onyekachukwu Ike-Ikedoji Dip. L.L, Dip. CAM, B.Phil, B.A Hons, B.Sc., M.A is the YPP CANDIDATE FOR ANAMBRA STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY, NNEWI NORTH CONSTITUENCY)
THE MEANING OF STINGINESS: PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE.
Wittgenstein in his Tractatus Logica, which is a twenty-four paged doctoral thesis defined philosophy as “The bewitchment of the intellect by use of language “.
Meanwhile, its important to note that the intellectual history of critical thinking is as ancient as its etymology, traceable to the history of Socrates who upholds that people may not really justify their confident claims to knowledge; confused meanings, inadequate evidences , self contradictory believes often lock beneath smooth, but largely empty rhetoric.
In the dialogue of Plato , Socrates asked ‘what is piety in piety that makes piety piety? And I ask what is stingy in stinginess that makes stinginess, stinginess ?
At the end of this work, the author agrees that for Public office holders and managers, stinginess is not just a virtue that stands in the middle, but a golden virtue that ought to be in the very nucleus of the search.
Stinginess according to ordinary day dictionary is “not generous or liberal : sparing or scant in using, giving, or spending”.
By this its generally assumed that the person being referred to is in possession of personal and legitimate wealth.
This is because, you cannot refer to a thief as stingy. Thus, calling one stingy confers a reasonable degree of legitimacy on his personal possessions. Emphasis, Personal Possessions.
Generally, when one is stingy, he is technically referred to as a Miser.
Miser is one who is extremely stingy with money and or its corollaries or better put personal valuables.
As a result, the synonyms for stingy are as follows:
cheap, chintzy, close, closefisted, mean, mingy, miserly, niggard, niggardly, parsimonious, penny-pinching, penurious, pinching, pinchpenny, spare, sparing, stinting, tight, tightfisted, uncharitable, ungenerous
While the antonyms, for stingy ranges from
bounteous, bountiful, charitable, freehanded, generous, liberal, munificent, openhanded, unsparing, unstinting
For example, “STINGY, CLOSE, NIGGARDLY, PARSIMONIOUS, PENURIOUS, MISERLY mean being unwilling or showing unwillingness to share with others.
STINGY implies a marked lack of generosity. a stingy child, not given to sharing CLOSE suggests keeping a tight grip on one’s money and possessions.
folks who are very close when charity calls NIGGARDLY implies giving or spending the very smallest amount possible.
the niggardly amount budgeted for the town library PARSIMONIOUS suggests a frugality so extreme as to lead to stinginess.
a parsimonious lifestyle notably lacking in luxuries PENURIOUS implies niggardliness that gives an appearance of actual poverty.
the penurious eccentric bequeathed a fortune MISERLY suggests a sordid avariciousness and a morbid pleasure in hoarding. a miserly couple devoid of social conscience”.
A closer look into the etymology of the concept stingy have limited it’s application to certain persons and its usage under certain circumstances. Historically, the “Old English stingan “to stab, pierce, or prick with a point” (of weapons, insects, plants, etc.), from Proto-Germanic *stingan (source also of Old Norse stinga, Old High German stungen “to prick,” Gothic us-stagg “to prick out,” Old High German stanga, German stange “pole, perch,” German stengel “stalk, stem”), perhaps from PIE *stengh-, nasalized form of root *stegh- “to stick, prick, sting.”
Specialized to insects late 15c. Intransitive sense “be sharply painful” is from 1848. Slang meaning “to cheat, swindle” is from 1812. Old English past tense stang, past participle stungen; the past tense later leveled to stung”.
Thus, since its derivative could also imply to cheat or swindle, it application has become limited, especially, to prudent or apparently prudent public office holders and it will be Mark of grammatical ignorance to use the concept stinginess to define public office holders who are careful with spending what then is the proper concept to use?
The proper concept to use without fear of error or what is called certitude in epistemology is THRIFTY.
Who then is a thrifty person?
If you say that someone is thrifty, you are praising them for saving money, not buying unnecessary things, and not wasting things.
Following the narratives of Amb. Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu dated 16th June, 2022, it becomes imperative for the prophet to have been charitable enough to describe his target as THRIFTY following his voluntary refusal to either donate to bazaar or show appreciation for returning him to office in monetary terms.
Originally, thrifty in c. 1300 meant , “fact or condition of thriving,” also “prosperity, savings,” from Middle English thriven “to thrive” (see thrive), influenced by (or from) Old Norse þrift, variant of þrif “prosperity,” from þrifask “to thrive.”
Sense of “habit of saving, economy” first recorded 1550s (thrifty in this sense is recorded from1520.
In conclusion, the concept stingy under the circumstance it was used by the Priest, Prophet and King do not actually reflect what he meant, he should have simply described the politician as thrifty and that would have not generated the absolutely unnecessary heat.