economy

Meanings

Noun

• Effective management of a community or system, or especially its resources.
• The study of money, currency and trade, and the efficient use of resources.
• Frugal use of resources.
• The system of production and distribution and consumption. The overall measure of a currency system; as the national economy.
• The method of divine government of the world. (See w:Economy (religion).)
• The part of a commercial passenger airplane or train reserved for those paying the lower standard fares; economy class.
• Management of one’s residency.

Adjective

• Cheap to run; using minimal resources; representing good value for money; economical.

Adverb

• In or via the part of a commercial passenger airplane reserved for those paying the lower standard fares.

Origin

• Borrowed from Latin oeconomia, from Ancient Greek οἰκονομία ("management of a household, administration"), from οἶκος + νέμω (surface analysis eco- + -nomy). The first recorded sense of the word economy, found in a work possibly composed in 1440, is “the management of economic affairs”, in this case, of a monastery.