poor

Meanings

Adjective

• With no or few possessions or money, particularly in relation to contemporaries who do have them.
• Of low quality.
• Used to express pity.
• Deficient in a specified way.
• Inadequate, insufficient.
• Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek.

Noun

• Poor people as a group. (Nowadays almost always used with the definite article: the poor)

Related

Similar words

• inferior
• pitiable, arm

Opposite words

• rich, wealthy
• good
• rich
• adequate

Narrower meaning words

• dirt poor
• house poor
• iron-poor
• land poor

Origin

• Inherited from Middle English povre, povere, from Old French (and Anglo-Norman) povre, poure, from Latin pauper, from Old Latin *pavo-pars, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w-. .
• Displaced native arm#Etymology_2, wantsome, (from Old English unlǣde), Middle English unweli ("poor, unwealthy") (from un- + weliġ).