Touch Your Elbow

Now say the word tacaño.

Do you know what that means? It means cheap in Spanish. 

Do you know what that means? It depends.
When you pick up your first SAT or GRE book, the first thing you learn is that words can have multiple meanings and many synonyms. The second thing you learn is that synonyms have very different meanings. 

Case study. 

When you look up the 'cheap' your query produces multiple meanings:

 1) Costing very little; relatively low in price; in expensive. Example: a cheap dress. 
 2) Costing little labor or trouble. Example: words are cheap.
 3) Charging low prices. Example: a very cheap store.
 4) Of little account, of small value. Example: cheap workmanship.
 5) Embarrassed, sheepish. Example: he felt cheap about his mistake. (New to me.)
 6) Obtainable at a low rate of interest. Example: when money is cheap.
 7) Singy, miserly

It also produces many synonyms. 

However, in the case of cheap, there is only one synonym that corresponds with tacaño, and no, it is not frugal.

Stingy.

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One of my many faults is that I have expensive tastes. Another one of my faults is that stingy people bug.

Bug.

I know, a bad combination and recipe for disaster, right?

You know what bugs even more. People who think they're frugal when they're actually stingy.

I've learned a new word to describe this behavior: parsimonious. Or in other words, extreme frugality leads to stinginess. (On a random note, author William J. Bennett wrote, "A society that is parsimonious in its personal charity (in terms of both time and money) will require more government welfare.)

So, next time you or I act out of frugality, question whether it's frugality or just being cheap.

Touch your elbow. Now say tacaño.