What does parsimonious mean to you?

[Lumo]

I had written a short (scientific) report and gave it to a student to proof read. Half way through he started laughing and said my autocorrect must have come up with the wrong word when I made a spelling mistake. The word he objected to was parsimonious.

 

The context was along the lines of: "...the most parsimonious explanation of the emergence of a deficit as the demands of the task increase is..."

 

He then explained he took parsimonious to mean 'cheapest' or 'meanest'. I objected, saying it just means 'the simplest'. A quick look in Mirriam-Webster found the main entry: "frugal to the point of stinginess". This came as a bit of a shock to me.

 

In the OED I did find a definition: Of a scientific hypothesis or explanation (esp. a phylogenetic tree): assuming the simplest state, process, evolutionary pathway, etc., that is consistent with the facts or observations; in accordance with the law or principle of parsimony

 

This was much closer to the meaning I was intending, it was however after two entries containing the words meagre, scanty, tight-fisted and frugal. This got me thinking, the only meaning I associate with parsimonious is 'simplest explanation', and I would even go so far as to say 'the simplest and most elegant explanation'. But this student just laughed at that definition and warned me most people would take it to mean cheap and I should probably change the word. At this point I told him I had used it before. To back my claim up a bit more, I also found that there are just over 3500 publications in pubmed containing parsimonious.

 

But I did feel that maybe he was correct and I had an odd or unusual idea of what the word normally meant. It however didn't change my mind, and I left the word unchanged.

[vodkafan]

I think that's a good example of a word changing it's meaning to people over time. I can see that you mean in it it's sense of utmost economy but when I read the topic title my mind did immediately jump to the limited meaning that your proof reader did. I do like your wider meaning though and will try to use that myself somewhere in my story! It's a lovely word. 

[poppy]

You obviously know more about this than your student Duncan, you're using the word in it's scientific context.

 

Oc′cam's ra′zor
n.

the principle in philosophy and science that assumptions introduced to explain a thing must not be multiplied beyond necessity, and hence the simplest of several hypotheses is always the best in accounting for unexplained facts.

Also called law of parsimony

[Kell]

As it has multiple meanings, it may well be that it will be unclear to some readers which you mean, so perhaps substituting a different word for clarity would be a good idea.

[Chrissy]

I did immediately think of stinginess or meanness when I read you title, but clearly this is a word with a number of different meanings, and being a non science person means I would likely know the non-science definition/use over the science one.

 

You have used the term correctly so I would see no need to change it, unless the 'other' definition of the word could be used too easily in it's place therefore changing the way your point can be taken. 

[~Andrea~]

It also depends who your target audience is. Is it the scientific community or the general public?

[ian]

I must admit, even though I work in science, I've never come across that use of the word. I woul also only associate the word with meanness or stingyness. Still, you can't argue with the dictionary's definition, so I see no reason to change it - especially if you've used it before without comment. Also, scientific writing gets read by peers prior to publication I believe? Someone would have commented before now if it was incorrect. 

 

So I've learnt something new; I'll be bursting to try and get it into an email this afternoon.

[Athena]

As someone whose first language is Dutch I claim ignorance of the English language and have to admit I've never heard of this word before . It's very interesting to read about it and your posts, though .

[Lumo]

Interesting replies. Being Scottish, I thought I had heard most words relating to 'stinginess', but I still don't recall hearing this word in that context.

 

Yes, the paper had already been peer-reviewed and neither of the reviewers commented on the use of that word. The audience of that work was other scientists, but I will remember to be cautious should I ever use this word with a different audience in mind :-)

[Virginia]

Self righteously stingy