Scattergood

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person known for carelessly giving away resources without concern for value ; a surname which has appeared in various contexts
2. Someone who dispenses wealth or possessions without prudent thought ; a family name encountered in different historical or literary settings
3. An individual characterized by reckless generosity and poor financial judgment ; a last name found among certain individuals or fictional characters

Etymology: Anyone who has ever been called a "scattergood" was, in the original sense, being described as a spendthrift who gives things away with no thought for tomorrow. The word is a plain compound: "scatter," meaning to throw or spread about, joined to "good," meaning property, goods or wealth. Put together, the two parts describe someone who scatters their goods, letting them fly out of the house rather than keeping them. The sense has stayed close to that literal picture. A scattergood is less a thief of wealth than a person who spends or hands it out too freely, which is why the word sits comfortably beside "spendthrift" and "wastrel" in older English usage. The second element, "good," is the old English-derived noun for possessions, the same sense that survives in "goods" and "chattels," so the term reads almost as a description of wealth being cast to the wind.

Synonyms: spendthrift, profligate, wastrel, improvident, squanderer

Antonyms: miser, hoarder, thrifty, frugal, economical