miser

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Ebenezer Scrooge encounters "Ignorance" and "Want" in A Christmas Carol

A miser or cheapskate is a person who is reluctant to spend money, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts. The term derives from the Latin miser, meaning "poor" or "wretched," comparable to the modern word "miserable".

Famous misers in history

• Ephraim Lópes Pereira d'Aguilar, 2nd Baron d'Aguilar – an eccentric Jewish Portuguese nobleman, who lived a life of privation, while amassing a secret fortune.
• Andrew Carnegie – Scottish born American industrialist, was notoriously "thrifty" until his old age, when he endowed numerous charities, including the New York Public Library. He was infamous for tipping a dime for services rendered, especially when a much larger tip was appropriate.
• The Collyer brothers of New York City, who earned notoriety for living in a filthy, booby-trapped home.
• John Elwes (aka "Elwes the Miser"), was a noted British eccentric and miser, and believed to be the inspiration for the character of "Ebenezer Scrooge" in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. ^[1]
• Hetty Green – Cortland miser – was considered the world's wealthiest woman in 1916, and was known as The Witch of Wall Street.
• Charles Huffman was a miser from the 1950s in the U.S. He was found dead on a Brooklyn, New York street with no money in his pockets. The police traced him to a $7 per week room that was filled with bank books and more than $500,000 in stock certificates. He was characterized by Franz Lidz, in The New York Times, on October 26, 2003.
• Joseph Nollekens – Londoner generally considered to be the finest British sculptor of the late 18th century, he was also a notorious miser.

List of notable misers in fiction

Death and the Miser

• Ebenezer Balfour – Scottish, antagonist from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Jack Benny – Jewish American, title character of The Jack Benny Program
• Edmund Blackadder - English, various incarnations throughout history in the Blackadder television series
• Mr. Briggs – English, guardian of the title character in Cecilia by Frances Burney
• Brundibár - Czech, organ grinder who denies children coins to buy milk for their sick mother
• Mr. Burns - Scottish American, from the Simpsons
• Norbert Colon – British, cartoon character from the adult-orientated comic Viz
• George Costanza – Italian American, one of the main characters in Seinfeld, played by Jason Alexander
• Milburn Drysdale – Scottish American, played by Raymond Bailey in The Beverly Hillbillies TV sitcom
• Henry Earlforward – English, in Arnold Bennet's novel Riceyman Steps (1923)
• Fagin – Jewish Londoner, antagonist from Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist
• Paulie Gualtieri – Italian American, aka "Paulie Walnuts", DiMeo Crime family capo on The Sopranos
• Grandet – French, father of Eugenie Grandet, a novel by Balzac
• Harpagon – French, from Molière's play The Miser
• Eugene H. Krabs (aka Mr. Krabs) – Bikinian, voiced by Clancy Brown in SpongeBob SquarePants animations
• Otto Lidenbrock – German, professor in the novel Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
• Silas Marner – English weaver, George Eliot (pen name of Mary Ann Evans) character
• Scrooge McDuck – Scottish American waterfowl, Walt Disney character voiced by Alan Young; named after Ebenezer Scrooge
• Trina McTeague – Swiss German American, wife of the brute McTeague in Frank Norris' novel
• Fred Mertz – American, played by William Frawley on I Love Lucy
• Mean Mr. Mustard – Indian, title character in a Beatles' song from the album Abbey Road
• Plyushkin – Russian landowner, character from Nikolai Gogol's novel Dead Souls
• Henry F. Potter – American, played by Lionel Barrymore in the film It's a Wonderful Life
• Séraphin Poudrier – French Canadian, in the novel Un homme et son péché by Québécois author Claude-Henri Grignon
• The Baron – Russian, a character from Alexander Pushkin's drama The Miserly Knight, also The Covetous Knight, (Russian: Скупой рыцарь, Skupóy rïtsár)
• Ebenezer Scrooge – English, character in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens character (based on real-life miser John Elwes)
• Shylock – Jewish Venetian, from The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
• The Lady of Stavoren – Dutch, local legend
• Prokharchin - Russian in the short story Mr. Prokharchin by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Stereotypes

The stereotype of the "miser" is a wealthy, greedy man who lives miserably in order to save and increase his treasure. Other stereotypes are the "thrifty" Scotsmen and the "frugal" Dutch.

A related stereotype is the capitalist as portrayed in, for example, Soviet propaganda. Both are usually moneylenders or industrialists, in any case businessmen, who possess great personal wealth but aren't bothered by the fate of the poor. The difference is that, unlike the miser, the capitalist does spend his money and is typically portrayed leading a decadent life. Anti-Semites have portrayed Jews both as misers and/or capitalists.

See also

• Frugality
• Greed
• Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
• Seven deadly sins

References

1. ^ The Letters of Charles Dickens by Charles Dickens, Madeline House, Graham Storey, Margaret Brown, Kathleen Tillotson, & The British Academy (1999) Oxford University Press [Letter to George Holsworth, 18 Jan. 1865] pp.7

External links

Look up miser in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.