Chrysti The Wordsmith: Skinflint - 1

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. Skinflint is a nickname for one who is excessively stingy and cautious with money. This moniker has several synonyms tightwad cheapskate horder penny pincher. But to my mind skinflint has an especially miserly ring to it. Add to that it's engaging etymology and we have a word worth investigating. The Flint in Skinflint is the hard stone used to spark fires when struck with iron or steel. Craig M. Carver lexicographer an managing editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English writes about Flint and its role in riflery and this is what inspired the word skinflint. Carver writes the rifle used a piece of flint held in a hammer like device or cock when the trigger was pulled at the spring loaded cock struck the flint against a steel plate creating a shower of sparks. The flash of the priming powder in the pan just beneath the steel plate ignited the charge in the bore and fired the weapon. After repeated firings the flint wore down most rifleman merely replaced the

flange but some penny pinchers skinned or sharpened their flints with a knife. And this they would do to avoid spending the small sum needed for a replacement Flint. Indeed the Oxford English Dictionary defines skinflint as one who would skin a flint to save or gain something an average person a miser English speakers have been using this nickname since the early seventeen hundreds. I'm Christi the wordsmith the Dave herbivores Christie the wordsmith the sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.