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Spendthrift

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The Danish thrift is the noun of the word thrive (to increase or prosper). Shakespeare says, “I have a mind presages me such thrift” (increase, profit). As our frugal ancestors found saving the best way to grow rich, they applied the word to frugality and careful management. A spendthrift is one who spends the thrift or saving of his father, or, as Old Adam says, the “thrify hire I saved.” (As You Like It.)

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Spectre of the Brocken
Spectrum, Spectra, Spectre (Latin, specto, to behold)
Speculate
Speech
Speed
Spell (A)
Spellbinders
Spelter
Spence
Spencer
Spendthrift
Spenser (Edmund)
Spenserian Metre (The)
Spent
Spheres
Sphinx (The Egyptian)
Spice
Spick and Span New
Spider
Spidireen or Spidereen
Spigot

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