economic, a. and n.
(iːkə-, ɛkəˈnɒmɪk)
For forms cf. economy.
[ad. L. œconomicus, ad. Gr. οἰκονοµικός, f. οἰκονόµος; see economy and -ic. The Fr. économique is of earlier date, and may have been the first source of the Eng. word.]
A. adj.
1. † a. Pertaining to the management of a household, or to the ordering of private affairs (obs.). b. Relating to private income and expenditure.
| 1592 Sir J. Davies Immort. Soul xii. (1697) 52 Doth employ her Oeconomick Art..her Household to preserve. 1603 Florio Montaigne (1634) 111 In this Oeconomicke or houshold order. 1627 Drayton Agincourt 212 A man of naturall goodness..whose courses..serue me for Oeconomike booke. 1650 Row Hist. Kirk (1842) 193 Imploying them in oeconomick & naturall morall duties. 1669 Gale Crt. Gentiles i. iii. i. 17 Oeconomic Poesie..also..Politic Poesie..had their Original from Moses's Oeconomics, and Politics. 1791 Cowper Odyss. xix. 408 That I in wisdom œconomic aught Pass other women. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 77 Landlords' Bills, and other economic Documents. ― Sterling i. ix. (1872) 55 His outlooks into the future, whether for his spiritual or economic fortunes, were confused. |
2. a. Relating to the science of economics; relating to the development and regulation of the material resources of a community or nation.
| 1835 I. Taylor Spir. Despot. ii. 70 The economic experiment. 1863 Fawcett Pol. Econ. i. iv. 35 Principles which will enable us to investigate economic problems. 1883 Manch. Exam. 22 Nov. 5/3 M. Leroy-Beaulieu..one of the ablest writers on economic subjects. |
b. Maintained for the sake of profit. Also, Connected with the industrial arts. (The former title of the ‘Museum of Practical Geology’ was ‘Museum of Economic Geology’.)
| 1854 Badham Halieut. 36 The advantages to be derived from economic fish-ponds. Mod. The many economic applications of electricity. |
c. Practical or utilitarian in application or use, e.g. economic botany, economic geography, etc.
| 1861 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 22 Mar. 295 (heading) The Economic History of Paraffine. 1882 W. Cuningham Growth Eng. Ind. & Comm. 5 Economic History is not so much the study of a special class of facts, as the study of all the facts of a nation's history from a special point of view. 1882 B. D. Jackson (title) Vegetable technology; a contribution towards a bibliography of economic botany. 1914 J. McFarlane Economic Geography 1 Economic Geography may be defined as the study of the influence exerted upon the economic activities of man by his physical environment. 1922 C. K. Leith Econ. Aspects Geol. i. 1 The application of geology to practical uses, resulting in the development of the science generally known as economic geology. 1959 N.Z. Timber Jrnl. Apr. 52/2 Economic Forestry..is directed mainly towards marketing and utilization of forest products. |
d. economic man, a convenient abstraction used by some economists for one who manages his private income and expenditure strictly and consistently in accordance with his own material interests. Cf. economical man.
| 1889 G. B. Shaw Fabian Essays in Socialism 25 There is no such person as the celebrated ‘economic man’. 1890 A. Marshall Princ. Econ. I. vi. 78 When the older economists spoke of the ‘economic man’ as governed by selfish, or self-regarding motives, they did not express their meaning exactly. 1929 A. Huxley Do what you Will 217 Historical materialists, who deal..with abstract ‘Economic Men’. 1930 Economist 19 July 115/2 There is the danger..that the State..may prove to be a mechanism..so forgetful of human personality in its concentration on the barren concept of ‘economic man’ that ordinary men, hungry for individual well-being, may revolt against it. 1965 Seldon & Pennance Everyman's Dict. Econ. 138 Economic Man, concerned with the immediate aim of obtaining the largest possible command over resources with the minimum of sacrifice. |
e. economic rent, a rent that brings a fair return on capital and current expenditure (see also quots. 1965 and 1966).
| 1889 G. B. Shaw Fabian Essays in Socialism 6 Here is a clear advantage of {pstlg} 500 a year to the first comer. This {pstlg}500 is economic rent. 1894 ― in Fortn. Rev. Apr. 480 The difference between the worst acre and the best (otherwise the ‘economic rent’) can be reduced finally by equality of cultivation. 1950 G. Brenan Face of Spain v. 103 On their present wages, no working-class family can pay an economic rent. 1965 Seldon & Pennance Everyman's Dict. Econ. 142 Economic rent,..the earnings of a factor of production in excess of the minimum sum necessary to keep it in existing use. 1966 A. Gilpin Dict. Econ. Terms (1967) 60 Economic rent, a payment to a unit of a factor of production which is in excess of the minimum amount necessary to keep that unit in its present occupation. A firm may pay a wage sufficient to retain its present staff. In attempting to increase its staff, however, the firm may find it necessary to raise wages and attract workers from other employment. The increase in wage now enjoyed by the original staff is economic rent. |
f. economic system, the sum of the economic institutions and arrangements of a society.
| 1898 A. P. Atterbury tr. Sombart's Socialism & Social Movement i. 4 By a ‘social class’ I understand..men who are interested in a specific system of production and distribution. We must, in understanding any social class, go back to this economic system. 1909 M. Epstein tr. Sombart's Socialism & Social Movement (ed. 6) 1 In using the words ‘economic system’ I mean a given social order, or an economic condition of things, which is characterized by one or more prominent economic principles. 1929 W. Sombart in Econ. Hist. Rev. II. 13 The general conception which I employ in order to distinguish, describe and correlate economic phenomena is that of the economic system. Ibid. 14 By an economic system I understand a mode of satisfying and making provision for material wants, which can be comprehended as a unit, wherein each constituent element of the economic process displays some given characteristic. 1937 R. L. Hall (title) The economic system in a socialist state. 1951 R. Firth Elem. Soc. Org. iv. 127 The role of the anthropologist here is rather that of a watch-dog—to see that no one takes away the reality of the economic systems of primitive peoples by default. |
g. economic war(fare), the use of economic measures as a means of bringing pressure to bear on another country, or in retaliation for such measures taken against the user.
| 1916 G. L. Dickinson (title) Economic war after the war. 1939 W. S. Churchill in War Illustr. 2 Dec. 374/3 Nazi Germany is all the time under the grip of our economic warfare falling back in oil and other essential war supplies. 1949 E. Pound Pisan Cantos lxxviii. 64 And the economic war has begun. |
h. economic growth, the growth per head of the population in the production of goods and services over a stated period of time; the rate of expansion of the national income. Cf. growth1 1 c.
| 1940 C. G. Clark Conditions of Economic Progress x. 337 (heading) The morphology of economic growth. 1948 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. XCII. 229/2 The economic growth of the United States can thus be defined. 1953 J. Viner Internat. Trade & Econ. Devel. vi. 103 It is not necessary to look for other factors..to explain pervasive poverty and slow economic growth. 1965 Times 17 Feb. 19/6 Economic growth is no longer regarded as the cure-all for the nation's ills. |
† 3. Thrifty, careful, saving, sparing. Obs.
| 1755 H. Walpole Mem. Geo. II, II. 96 We should be economic. 1801 M. Edgeworth Belinda vi. (1832) I. 112, I never saw any one so economic of her smiles. |
† 4. economic rat: a transl. of Mus œconomicus, a name given by Linnæus to a burrowing rodent found in Siberia and Kamtchatka (now called Arvicola œconomus). Obs.
| 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) I. 378 The migrations of the Economic Rats, are not less extraordinary. |
5. Pertaining to ‘economy’ in religious teaching, or to ‘economy of truth’. Cf. economy 6.
| [1815 J. C. Hobhouse Substance of some Letters (1816) I. 11 That species of writing called by Voltaire, the œconomic style, or an expedient falsification of facts.] 1851 Robertson Serm. Ser. iv. vi. (1863) I. 34 His economic management of Truth. I use this word though it may seem pedantic. |
6. Pertaining to a dispensation, or method of the Divine government. Cf. economy 5 b.
| 1817 G. S. Faber Eight Dissertations (1845) I. 31 Jacob gives to this agent the..economic title of The Angel. |
B. n.
† 1. The art or science of managing a house; housekeeping. Obs.
| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 141 That othir point, which to practique Belongith, is economique. 1609 C. Butler Fem. Mon. v. (1623) K iv, As well in Musick as Oeconomick there must sometime be Discords. |
2. pl. (after L. œconomica, Gr. τὰ οἰκονοµικά). † a. The science or art of managing a household; a treatise on that subject. Obs.
| 1586 Cogan Haven Health (1636) 16 Aristotle..in his Œconomikes..biddeth us to rise before day. a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. xiv. §2 (1622) 356 Morall Philosophie..hath three parts: Ecclesiastickes, Oeconomickes, and Politickes. [1621 Bk. Discip. Ch. Scot. 43 Ethica, Oeconomica & Politica.] 1665 Glanvill Sceps. Sci. xix. 123 The more practical ones of Politicks and Œconomicks. 1770 Langhorne Plutarch (1879) II. 586/2 Economics, so far as they regard only inanimate things, serve only the low purposes of gain; but where they regard human beings they rise higher. |
b. The art of regulating income and expenditure; also, pecuniary position.
| 1851 Carlyle Sterling i. iv. (1872) 27 The family economics getting yearly more propitious and flourishing. Ibid. ii. vi. 140 The Original Regulations..a very solid lucid piece of economics. |
c. The science relating to the production and distribution of material wealth; sometimes used as equivalent to political economy, but more frequently with reference to practical and specific applications. Sometimes qualified by an adj. prefixed, as in rural economics. Also, the condition of a country with regard to material prosperity.
| 1792 A. Young Trav. France 176 He..engaged to go with me..to Tour D'Aigues to wait on The baron..whose essays are among the most valuable on rural œconomics. 1839 Carlyle Chartism iv. (1858) 17 The oppression has gone far farther than into the economics of Ireland. 1841–4 Emerson Ess. Ser. i. vii. (1876) 181 Chemistry, natural history, and economics. 1844 Disraeli Coningsby iii. iii. 100 Those moral attributes..are independent of economics. 1863 M. Howitt tr. F. Bremer's Greece I. v. 138 The improvement of Greece in economics. 1881 P. Geddes in Nature XXIV. 526 Those sections..were devoted to..physical economics. |
† 3. One who understands the art of housekeeping. Obs.
| 1656 Trapp Comm. Eph. i. 10 God is the best economic; his house is exactly ordered for matter of good husbandry. |
† 4. Eccl. Hist. An administrator of the revenues of a vacant benefice [= med.L. œconomus]. Obs.
| 1616 N. Brent Hist. Counc. Trent (1676) 611 There being a suit for a benefice, an Oiconomick may be created. Ibid. 735 The Episcopal See being void, the Chapter shall elect one or two economicks. |