pauper - Wiktionary, the free dictionary


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Learned borrowing from Latin pauper (“poor”). Originally a legal term.[1] Doublet of poor.

pauper (plural paupers)

  1. One who is extremely poor.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pauper
  2. One living on or eligible for public charity.

one who is extremely poor

Translations to be checked

pauper (third-person singular simple present paupers, present participle paupering, simple past and past participle paupered)

  1. (transitive) To make a pauper of; to drive into poverty.

    • 2017, Naomi Rawlings, Love's Christmas Hope:

      “There's no sense in you paupering yourself because you're too stubborn to take my money.”

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “pauper”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Learned borrowing from Latin pauper.

pauper

  1. poor

Borrowed from Latin pauper.

  • IPA(key): /ˈpɑu̯.pər/
  • Hyphenation: pau‧per

pauper m (plural paupers, diminutive paupertje n)

  1. (informal, often derogatory) a pauper

From Proto-Italic *pawoparos (a thematic adjective, which was switched to the third declension in Latin analogically), from a compound beginning with Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, small”) (compare English few). The origin of the second element, -per, is less certain, but probably *perh₃- (“to grant, bestow, provide”) (compare Ancient Greek ἔπορον (époron, “to supply, grant, pay”)), therefore the compound meant “providing little”.[1]

pauper (genitive pauperis, comparative pauperior, superlative pauperrimus); third-declension one-termination adjective (non-i-stem)

  1. poor
    Synonyms: egens, inops, exiguus
    Antonyms: opulentus, dives, dis, ditis, opulens, locuples, pecuniosus

Third-declension one-termination adjective (non-i-stem).

Number Singular Plural
Case / Gender Masc./Fem. Neuter Masc./Fem. Neuter
Nominative pauper pauperēs paupera
Genitive pauperis pauperum
Dative pauperī pauperibus
Accusative pauperem pauper pauperēs paupera
Ablative paupere pauperibus
Vocative pauper pauperēs paupera
  • In Late or Vulgar Latin, this third declension adjective seems to have been regularized to first/second declension, like in the attested forms pauperus and paupera
Learned borrowings
  1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “pauper”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 451: “PIt. *pau(o)-pa/oro-; PIE *peh₂u-(o-)p(o)rh₃-o-”
  • “pauper”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “pauper”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • pauper in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • to raise a man from poverty to wealth: aliquem ex paupere divitem facere

pauper

  1. Alternative form of paper

Borrowed from Latin pauper.

pauper m or n (feminine singular pauperă, masculine plural pauperi, feminine and neuter plural paupere)

  1. poor