economic

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   using the minimum of time or resources necessary for effectiveness

   an economic use of home heating oil

2. 2
   adj

   financially rewarding

   it was no longer economic to keep the factory open

3. 3
   adj

   concerned with worldly necessities of life, especially money

   They wrote the book primarily for economic reasons.

4. 4
   adj

   of or relating to the science of economics

   economic theory

5. 5
   adj

   of or relating to an economy, the system of production and management of material wealth

   economic growth

6. 6
   adj

   Pertaining to an economy.

   Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.

7. 7
   adj

   Pertaining to the management of a household

   And doth employ her Oeconomick Art, and buisy Care, her Houshold to preserve

8. 8
   adj

   Frugal; cheap (in the sense of representing good value); economical.

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English economike, iconomique (“household management”), and then: * from Middle French iconomique, oeconomique, and Old French iconomike (“(noun) household management; person in charge of household management; (adjective) relating to household management; relating to domestic or family matters; relating to management of a state; reducing costs or expenses, economical”) (modern French économique); and * from their etymon Latin oeconomicus (“(noun) household manager, housekeeper, steward; (adjective) relating to orderly arrangement of written material”) (whence La…