Talk:Miser

The Charles Huffman paragraph was plagiarized from this site: http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Miser/id/1896086 tharsaile 16:14, 5 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Where is he ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.48.227.107 (talk) 23:24, 20 April 2013 (UTC)Reply

the Collyer brothers were certainly hoarders, but not misers. Their lack of spending was a result of mental health conditions, not frugality. I am removing them from the article. -Bottesini 00:14, 12 April 2006 (UTC)Reply

Should Shylock (Shakespeare) be included? --maru 00:35, 3 May 2005 (UTC)Reply

According to allshakespeare.com, "Shakespeare based Shylock on the miser, a stock character from medieval* literature. Although the miser was traditionally a comical villain, the playwright made his character more human by giving him sympathetic qualities."

Seems Shylock should be included, and we need something about the medieval comical character, too. --Djadek 00:41, 3 May 2005 (UTC)Reply

Something like *Shylock, Shakesperean medieval comical character? --maru 00:45, 3 May 2005 (UTC)Reply

I'm afraid in this case allshakespeare is wrong. Shylock is a moneylender confined with his fellow Jews between sunset and sunrise to the Ghetto, an island enclave in Venice. Moneylending was one of the few occupations permitted for Jews, as usury was forbidden by the Christian Church (as it still is within Islam). Jews were confined to lending money at interest to gentiles, not to their own people. The Merchant of Venice, Antonio, is so sure his ships will arrive safely so that he will be able to repay the 3000 ducats, and berates Shylock for wanting to charge interest. Shylock, rather generously and somewhat humorously, suggests 'a merry bond' of a pound of flesh if Antonio fails to repay. Needless to say, Antonio and Portia cheat him out of even the 3000 ducats principal loan. There is no suggestion that Shylock is a miser. Fairlightseven 19/01/2010 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.22.180.236 (talk) 10:21, 19 January 2010 (UTC)Reply

Given this quote, I think Shylock should be removed. Demanding a pound of flesh might be greedy, but given the ending, it could be read that Shylock didn't trust Antonio, that's not really greed or miserly. I'll add that while Christians at the time considered 'usury' to be lending money with interest, Jewish tradition only considered excessive interest to be usury. Paddling bear (talk) 22:24, 25 February 2010 (UTC)Reply

Also, I don't recall Mr. Drysdale being a miser. He thought the hillbillies were stupid, and was always trying to con them out of their money, making him greedy, but we don't know enough about his one-dimensional character to know how he spent his money. I suggest we remove him as well. These should be MISERS not just rich or greedy people.--Paddling bear (talk) 22:24, 25 February 2010 (UTC)Reply

Changed the reference to him being an American character - he isn't, he's from the British comic, Viz, as stated in the article to which his name is linked.

Leroy Lockhorn is listed at the bottom of this article. Obviously, he was added in order to bring the article into compliance with this comic: life imitating fiction, a la the Weird Al article after The Onion did a story on it. I suppose that's OK, but it's weird in an existential way. Fishal 00:56, 6 June 2007 (UTC)Reply

Hah. That's fascinating. I did look up The Lockhorns when Leroy was added to this article. --健次(derumi)^talk 02:08, 6 June 2007 (UTC)Reply

Doesn't miserhood also have a traditional connotation of not being charitable, explaining the "mean" in the Merriam-Webster definition (http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/miser)? Superm401 - Talk 08:15, 27 November 2007 (UTC)Reply

Another editor disputes the usage curmudgeon and cites Wiktionary. However, Wiktionary is not a reliable source. When we consult the OED, we see that its definition for curmudgeon is:

An avaricious churlish fellow; a miser, a niggard

and so the word belongs here. Colonel Warden (talk) 11:38, 9 May 2010 (UTC)Reply

The section on "Relevant Academic Research" has a couple of problems:

• This is an article about "Miser" - not "tightwaddism" or "frugality". The article cited does not once mention "miser" except as a quote from literature.
• This is an encyclopedia. We don't have sections titled "Relevant Academic Research". We have sections that outline the subject - in this case "Miser".
• The inclusion deals with pain of spending v. pleasure of saving and relates them to the terms "tightwad" and "frugal" - but fails to relate them to the subject of the article "Miser". The synonyms included in the article's introduction aren't sourced and shouldn't be relied upon. Their definitions are not synonymous.
• We generally suspect the motives of the author of an academic article who comes to Wikipedia to promote his or her own work. That is, does this work serve to promote Wikipedia - or does it serve to promote the author?
• The addition appears to do little to promote our understanding of a "Miser" - the best definition of which is "a person who experiences extreme discomfort in spending money, often to the detriment of their own health and welfare." The article in question focuses instead on a the range of consumer spending behaviors. Rklawton (talk) 14:41, 14 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Being a landlord or a banker is not "behaviour", and I doubt it was punished at any time. Any evidence for this strange idea?

The quotation given deals with a work of fiction from the Qing dynasty (which was Manchu, not Chinese). I am therefore removing the very questionable paragraph. Mzilikazi1939 (talk) 02:02, 14 March 2013 (UTC)Reply

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Extreme Cheapskates might deserve a brief mention in the article. Ypna (talk) 06:11, 18 January 2020 (UTC)Reply

The WP article does not mention misers, just meanness. See the distinction made in the lede here. Sweetpool50 (talk) 09:17, 18 January 2020 (UTC)Reply

I'm confused; which WP article are you talking about? Both mention misers and neither just mention meanness. Extreme Cheapskates is about people who do take extreme delight in saving money; i.e. "properly miserly" according to the lede of this article. Ypna (talk) 00:17, 19 January 2020 (UTC)Reply

I was all set to include a passing mention of the show but decided to look at a long online description of it first. The word "miser" is often misapplied to what is only parsimonious behaviours, after all. Looking at this review, I find that the progamme's main emphasis is on saving expenses (and often saving money so as to afford something else). The motive is chiefly rational anti-consumerism. Therefore to include it in the Miser article verges on WP:OFFTOPIC. I repeat, too, that the word "miser" does not appear in WP's description of the show. Sweetpool50 (talk) 11:37, 19 January 2020 (UTC)Reply

Thank you for taking the time to investigate the show's contents. To address the last part of your comment first, I see the actual nature of the show as the essential question here, and Wikipedia's description of that nature as secondary. In other words, it is the content of show that determines whether the show features misers, and if it were determined that the show features at least some misers, it would be appropriate to improve the show's Wikipedia article by including this fact. Secondly, a description of the show is a good reference because it clearly wouldn't count as original research, but from my experience the word miser is rarely used, and so I wouldn't expect it to appear in a non-technical context that really does feature proper misers. I have seen just one episode (S01E02), and in it there is a woman with a full-time job, no family, who never mentions saving for anything. Yet, she seems to take an inordinate amount of pride in saving small amounts of money (e.g. using her hand instead of toilet paper), and seems to feel frustration and superiority over those who don't save. Anyway, this is currently just original research, not my field of interest or expertise, and I'll trust you and others to make the decision that seems best. Mention it or don't mention it; it's not a big deal to me. Ypna (talk) 01:38, 20 January 2020 (UTC)Reply

Snow/Heat Miser claim themselves to be "misers". Wouldn't they technically be included in this? UB Blacephalon (talk) 06:15, 8 February 2020 (UTC)Reply

  This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 25 August 2023 and 17 October 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): ReyJoy2023 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Atmadnan (talk) 13:40, 6 September 2023 (UTC)Reply

  The redirect Penny pincher has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2023 December 12 § Penny pincher until a consensus is reached. - CHAMPION ^{(talk) (contributions) (logs)} 00:42, 12 December 2023 (UTC)Reply

There's nothing on the origin of the word. Is it Latinate? Greek? Germanic? How is it related to other words? Are miserable and misery derivatives? It's an awful long article for something that isn't even defined within the body. IrishStephen (talk) 17:12, 13 May 2024 (UTC)Reply

Nonsense, the meaning is defined in the lead. Sweetpool50 (talk) 21:03, 13 May 2024 (UTC)Reply