WORD of the day

“Thrifty” as opposed to “spendthrift”…

This one causes a lot of confusion for those learning the English language, and with good reason. Let’s look at the definitions for both:

Thrifty: practicing economical management; careful in the use of resources.
Spendthrift: A person who spends possessions or money wastefully.

If that gets hard to remember, try looking at it this way: A thrifty person is someone who is smart and saves, a spendthrift is someone who spends away what he or she has worked so hard to save—i.e. spend+thrift.