Etymograph

English

scrimp

Scrimp may come from Scots scrimp ‘meager’.

  1. Scotsc. 1450–presentscrimp1‘meager’uncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1851scrimp1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English scrimp
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or: “For, as a general thing, the English merchant-ship scrimps…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Scotsc. 1450–presentscrimpWiktionary, English scrimp‘meager’uncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1851scrimpWiktionary, English scrimp. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or: “For, as a general thing, the English merchant-ship scrimps…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to cut off’

short, share, card, across, cancer, cross, shirt, score, circle, circuit, screen, curve, crucial, circus, circulation, skirt, carnival, scare, curb, cancellation, circa, shrine, scar, corona, shear, crest, incarceration, scrutiny, shred, carnage, raffle, circulate, scorpion, carcinoma, corolla, shrewd, shard, carnal, cirque, circulatory, 118 more

through Proto-Germanic *skrimpaną ‘to shrink’

shrimp, 1 more

Today it means

noun A pinching miser; a niggard.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “scrimp”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Scots scrimp / scrimp

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