poor
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
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)
Forms: form: poorer
form: poorest
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: We were so poor that we couldn't afford shoes.
text: England is growne to ſuch a paſſe of late,
That rich men triumph to ſee the poore beg at their gate.
ref: 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:
text: When Owenism and Chartism had burned themselves out, England had become poorer by that substance out of which the Anglo-Saxon ideal of a free society could have been built up for centuries to come.
ref: 1957 [1944], Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, Beacon Press: Boston, page 167:
text: The poorest of the poor are truly destitute, with so few assets they are basically shackless.
ref: 2014, George W. Norton, Hunger and Hope: Escaping Poverty and Achieving Food Security in Developing ...:
text: Durable goods can be cost-effective but make great disease vectors, and disposables like syringes and needles can be a problem in the poorest places, where there's desperate need of vaccines for diseases like polio. That's where the UCSD scientists come in.
ref: 2016 January 14, Jessica Hall, “Nanoengineers build 'microcannons' that fire light-up bullets filled with drugs”, in ExtremeTech:
synonyms: word: almsless
word: arm
word: badly off
word: bankrupt
word: beggared
word: beggarly
word: boracic
word: broke
word: broken
word: broker than the Ten Commandments
word: destitute
word: dirt poor
word: disadvantaged
word: down and out
word: down at heel
word: down on one's luck
word: down on one's uppers
word: empty-handed
word: feeling the pinch
word: flat
word: hard up
word: impecunious
word: impoverished
word: in need
word: indigent
word: insolvent
word: lower-class
word: necessitous
word: needy
word: oofless
word: pauperized
word: penniless
word: penurious
word: pinched
word: pok kai
word: poor
word: poor as a church mouse
word: poor as a rat
word: poor as Job
word: possessionless
word: poverty-ridden
word: poverty-stricken
word: shillingless
word: skint
word: stone-broke
word: stony-broke
word: strapped
word: stuck
word: threadbare
word: unwealthy
word: wealthless
antonyms: rich
wealthy
glosses: With no or few possessions or money, particularly in relation to contemporaries who do have them.
examples: text: That was a poor performance.
text: He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: Meanwhile, due to a lack of wind, air quality in west Taiwan was poor yesterday, the Environmental Protection Administration said. Air quality could deteriorate early this morning, triggering a “red” alert — which signals unhealthy air quality — in some parts of Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan counties, it said.
ref: 2021 March 28, “Taiwan News Quick Take”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Mar 2021, Taiwan News, page 3:
synonyms: inferior
antonyms: good
glosses: Of low quality.
examples: text: Oh, you poor thing, you're drenched!
text: This poor little puppy got a nasty snake bite.
text: Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
ref: 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0056:
text: Mr. Campion sighed. ‘Poor man,’ he said. ‘He sees his great sacrifices rejected by the gods, and so, no doubt, all the Misses Eumenides let loose again to plague him.’
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
synonyms: pitiable
glosses: Worthy of pity.
examples: text: Cow's milk is poor in iron.
antonyms: rich
glosses: Deficient in a specified way.
examples: text: I received a poor reward for all my hard work.
text: That I have wronged no Man, will be a poor plea or apology at the last day.
ref: a. 1686, Benjamin Calamy, Sermon 1:
text: The temptation was more than mortal heart could resist. She gave him the promise he sought, stifling the voice of conscience; and as she clung to his neck it seemed to her that heaven was a poor thing compared with a man's love.
ref: 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
antonyms: adequate
decent
glosses: Inadequate, insufficient.
examples: text: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 5:3:
glosses: Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek.
Derived terms: antipoor
being poor is a mindset
being poor is a state of mind
cash poor
cash-poor
court poor box
dirt-poor
dirt poor
fuel-poor
have a poor time of it
house poor
impoor
income-poor
in poor taste
insurance poor
iron-poor
land poor
land-poor
Little Sister of the Poor
metal-poor
nonpoor
oxygen-poor
piss poor
piss-poor
poor as a barber's cat
poor as a church mouse
poor as a rat
poor as Job
poor as Job's turkey
poor box
poor boy
poor dab
poor devil
poor diddums
poor doer
poor door
poor farm
poor form
poor house
poorhouse
poor is a mindset
poor is a state of mind
poorish
poorism
poor-john
poor knights of Windsor
poor law
poorling
poor little boy
poor little girl
poor little meow meow
poor little rich boy
poor little rich girl
poor loser
poorly
poor man of mutton
poor man's
poor man's asparagus
poor man's black velvet
poor man's butter
poor man's cake
poor man's caviar
poor man's copyright
poor man's diamond
poor man's ginseng
poor man's goose
poor man's latte
poor man's manure
poor man's orchid
poor man's pizza
poor man's racehorse
poor man's sauce
poor man's steak
poor man's Tiffany
poor man's umbrella
poor man's weatherglass
poormaster
poor metal
poormouth
poor mouth
poor-mouth
poorness
poor old
pooron
poor power
poor pussy
poor-quality
poor rate
poor relation
poor relief
poor show
poorsies
poor-spirited
poor-spiritedness
poor sport
poor thing
Poor Tom
poor white trash
quite poor
semipoor
the poor we will always have with us
time-poor
ultrapoor
whip-poor-will
working poor
Related terms: few
paucal
pauci-
paucity
pauper