Economy
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1):
(n.) The system of rules and regulations by which anything is managed; orderly system of regulating the distribution and uses of parts, conceived as the result of wise and economical adaptation in the author, whether human or divine; as, the animal or vegetable economy; the economy of a poem; the Jewish economy.
(2):
(n.) The management of domestic affairs; the regulation and government of household matters; especially as they concern expense or disbursement; as, a careful economy.
(3):
(n.) Thrifty and frugal housekeeping; management without loss or waste; frugality in expenditure; prudence and disposition to save; as, a housekeeper accustomed to economy but not to parsimony.
(4):
(n.) Orderly arrangement and management of the internal affairs of a state or of any establishment kept up by production and consumption; esp., such management as directly concerns wealth; as, political economy.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [2]
"a term which properly means the arrangement of a household (οἰκονομία ), but is also frequently employed by ecclesiastical writers for the practical measures adopted in order to give effect to a divine dispensation. The Jewish economy included all the details of spiritual and secular government, but the Christian economy, belonging to a 'kingdom not of this world,' has no direct reference to political arrangements." (See Dispensation).
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [3]
"the right arrangement of things," and distinct from Frugality, which is "the careful and fitting use of things."
