Oeconomy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The practice of organizing and managing household resources pertains to economic activities, which includes both the efficient utilization of assets and the wider principles of financial management
2. It involves the systematic arrangement and administration of domestic wealth, connecting household management to the larger scope of economic systems and financial governance
3. The skillful overseeing and control of a household's financial and material assets to ensure their optimal use

Etymology: The archaic spelling "oeconomy" preserves the Greek vowel that modern English dropped. In ancient Greek, "oikonomía" was built from "oîkos," meaning house, and "némō," meaning to distribute or allocate, so its original sense was the running of a household. Greek speakers used it for managing a family's property and affairs, and it carried no notion of markets or money in the modern sense. The word reached English through Latin "oeconomia," then through Old French and Medieval Latin, and appears in Middle English as "yconomye." Its earliest recorded English sense, in a text possibly composed around 1440, is the management of economic affairs, and the example given is a monastery. That detail is a useful reminder of the word's domestic roots: a religious house was essentially a large household that had to be governed carefully.