Penny wise, pound foolish

[irmamar]

I have a few proverbs to study. This is the first one and I don't understand what it means. Furthermore, I haven't found that word, pennywise, in an online dictionary. Could you help me?

Thanks :)

[Perikles]

Pennywise means being sensible about saving small amounts of money (penny = penique)

Pound foolish means being silly abut wasting large amounts of money (Pound Sterling)

The saying means that it is pointless being careful about small things if at the same time you are careless about big ones. :)

i.e. get your priorities right!

[Elaina]

FYI..........

A penny is a small amount of money and a pound is a larger amount. "Penny-wise, pound-foolish" is to be cautious (wise) with small amounts of money but wasteful (foolish) with larger amounts. Example: "We've worked so hard to save money that if we took a vacation now it would be penny-wise, pound-foolish." People sometimes worry about spending small amounts of money; then they carelessly spend much larger amounts. Example: "He spends very little on food during the week, then blows all his money drinking on the weekends. He really is penny-wise, pound-foolish."

Excerpt from GoEnglish.com

I hope this helps......

[irmamar]

Thanks, Perkles :) . I had understood penny and pound, but sometimes you have a strange way of joining together two words :thinking: ;)

Sorry, Elaina, I didn't see your answer. Gracias a ti también :)