The adjective 'stingy' emerged in the mid-17th century. Its origin is uncertain but it is most convincingly linked to the dialectal English noun 'stinge,' meaning 'a sting,' which itself comes from the Old English verb 'stingan' (to sting). The semantic logic is vivid: a stingy person is perceived as one who 'stings' or hurts others by withholding resources, or whose giving is as sharp and painful as a sting. This metaphorical extension from physical pain to miserly behavior created a powerful and enduring descriptor for meanness. It is unrelated to the word 'stingy' meaning 'capable of stinging,' which follows a more literal adjectival formation from 'sting.'

The word 'stingy' is a simplex word. It is not productively formed from recognizable, separable morphemes in modern English. Its core is the root 'sting-'.