Emily Dickinson Lexicon

E-CON'O-MY, n. [L. œconomia; Gr. οικονομια; οικος, house, and νομος, law, rule.]

1. Primarily, the management, regulation and government of a family or the concerns of a household. Taylor.
2. The management of pecuniary concerns or the expenditure of money. Hence,
3. A frugal and judicious use of money; that management which expends money to advantage, and incurs no waste; frugality in the necessary expenditure of money. It differs from parsimony, which implies an improper saving of expense. Economy includes also a prudent management of all the means by which property is saved or accumulated; a judicious application of time, of labor, and of the instruments of labor.
4. The disposition or arrangement of any work; as the economy of a poem. Dryden. B. Jenson.
5. A system of rules, regulations, rites and ceremonies; as, the Jewish economy. The Jews already had a sabbath, which, as citizens and subjects of that economy, they were obliged to keep, and did keep. Paley.
6. The regular operations of nature in the generation, nutrition and preservation of animals or plants; as, animal economy; vegetable economy.
7. Distribution or due order of things. Blackmore.
8. Judicious and frugal management of public affairs; as, political economy.
9. System of management; general regulation and disposition of the affairs of a state or nation, or of any department of government.