poor
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: note: pour–poor merger
ipa: /pɔː/
note: without the pour–poor merger
ipa: /pʊə/
note: pour–poor merger
ipa: /poɹ/
note: without the pour–poor merger
ipa: /pʊɚ/
ipa: /pʊɹ/
ipa: /pʉːɹ/
ipa: /puːɹ/
ipa: /poː/
note: Indic, rhotic
ipa: /pur/
note: Indic, non-rhotic
ipa: /ˈpʊwə(r)/
note: Indic, non-rhotic
ipa: [ˈpu(ː)(ʋ)ə(ɾ)]
note: pour–poor merger
ipa: /po(r)/
note: non-rhotic, show–sure merger, African-American Vernacular
ipa: /poʊ/
rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ)
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
homophone: pour
homophone: pore (pour–poor merger)
homophone: paw (paw–poor merger)
homophone: Poe (show–sure merger)
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English povre, povere, from Old French (and Anglo-Norman) povre, poure, from Latin pauper, from Old Latin *pavo-pars (literally “getting little”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, small”). Doublet of pauper.
Displaced native arm, wantsome, Middle English unlede (“poor”) (from Old English unlǣde), Middle English unweli, unwely (“poor, unwealthy”) (from Old English un- + weliġ (“well-to-do, prosperous, rich”)).
Senses: examples: text: ...when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might haue bin sold for much, and giuen to the poore. When Iesus vnderstood it, he said vnto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good worke vpon me. For ye haue the poore alwayes with you, but me ye haue not alwayes.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 26:8-11:
text: Harry Truman used to say that 13 or 14 million Americans had their interests represented in Washington, but that the rest of the people had to depend on the President of the United States. That is how I felt about the 35 million American poor. They had no voice and no champion. Whatever the cost, I was determined to represent them. Through me they would have an advocate and, I believed, new hope.
ref: 1971, Lyndon Johnson, The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 39:
text: Then there have not always been proletarians?
No. There have always been poor and working classes; and those who worked were almost always the poor. But there have not always been proletarians, just as competition has not always been free.
ref: 1972, Anonymous translation of Friedrich Engels as "Draft of a Communist Confession of Faith", International Publishers
text: He is glad to see me and tells me that during his absence from the parish one of the women beggars died. Usually in these cases the state comes and takes the body away in a bag, to incinerate, but this time, because of his teachings, the other poor decided that she deserved a real funeral.
ref: 1983 December 24, Andrea Loewenstein, “"What's Freedom Without Food In Your Stomach?" — A Trip to Haiti”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 8:
text: This is the same Randian bullshit that we've been hearing from people like Brooks for ages and its entire premise is really revolting and insulting—this idea that the way society works is that the productive "rich" feed the needy "poor," and that any attempt by the latter to punish the former for "excesses" might inspire Atlas to Shrug his way out of town and leave the helpless poor on their own to starve. That's basically Brooks's entire argument here. Yes, the rich and powerful do rig the game in their own favor, and yes, they are guilty of "excesses"—but fucking deal with it, if you want to eat.
ref: 2010 Jan. 27, Matt Taibbi, "Populism: Just Like Racism!", True/Slant
text: The sun shines on the rich and the poor alike but, come the rain, the rich have better umbrellas.
text: The poor are always with us.
text: The rich are often so insulated from reality that they think the poor have extra money they could save for more than a short time.
glosses: The poor people of a society or the world collectively, the poor class of a society.
raw_tags: with the