'scrooge' originates from English, specifically the literary name 'Scrooge' created by Charles Dickens (1843), possibly influenced by the dialect verb 'scrooge/scrouge,' where the root meant 'to squeeze; crowd.'

'Scrooge' as the fictional surname became a cultural reference and later a common noun 'scrooge' meaning 'a miser' in modern English.

Initially, it referred solely to Dickens’s character, but it broadened to its current meaning of ‘a very stingy person.’