Spendthrift
/ˈspɛndˌθrɪft/noun
A person who spends money recklessly or wastefully.
Did you know?The second half, *thrift*, once meant “prosperity” or “wealth,” so the word originally pictured someone wasting the very thing they were supposed to preserve.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*thrīftiz
“prosperity, gain, success”
Old English
OE
þrift
“prosperity, profit, welfare”
Middle English
ME
spenden
“to spend, expend”
Late Middle English
ME
spendthrift
“a person who wastes wealth or property”
Modern English
English
spendthrift
“a person who spends money recklessly or wastefully”