poor

From Middle English povre, povere, from Old French (and Anglo-Norman) povre, poure (Modern French pauvre), from Latin pauper (English pauper), from Old Latin *pavo-pars (literally “getting little”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, small”). Cognate with Old English fēawa (“little, few”). Displaced native Middle English earm, arm (“poor”) (from Old English earm; See arm), Middle English wantsum, wantsome (“poor, needy”) (from Old Norse vant (“deficiency, lack, want”), Middle English unlede (“poor”) (from Old English unlǣde, Middle English unweli, unwely (“poor, unwealthy”) (from Old English un- + weliġ (“well-to-do, prosperous, rich”).

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /poː/
• (Received Pronunciation)
  • IPA^(key): /pʊə(ɹ)/, /pɔː(ɹ)/

  • Audio (RP): [pɵː]

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• (US)
  • IPA^(key): /pʊɹ/, /pɔɹ/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ), Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
• Homophones: pour, pore (with the pour-poor merger)
• Homophone: paw (in some non-rhotic accents) (with the pour-poor merger)

poor (comparative poorer, superlative poorest)

1. With little or no possessions or money, particularly in relation to contemporaries who do have them.

   We were so poor that we couldn't afford shoes.

2. Of low quality.

   That was a poor performance.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 10, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

3. Used to express pity.

   Oh you poor little thing.

   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., 55 Fifth Avenue, [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0056:

     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.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess‎:

     Mr. Campion sighed. ‘Poor man,’ he said. ‘He sees his great sacrifices rejected [word deleted], and so, no doubt, all the Misses Eumenides let loose again to plague him.’

4. Deficient in a specified way.

   Cow's milk is poor in iron.

5. Inadequate, insufficient.

   I received a poor reward for all my hard work.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Edmund Calamy

     That I have wronged no man will be a poor plea or apology at the last day.

6. Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek.
   • Bible, Matthew v.3

     Blessed are the poor in spirit.

When the word "poor" is used to express pity, it does not change the meaning of the sentence. For example, in the sentence "Give this soup to that poor man!", the word "poor" does not serve to indicate which man is meant (and so the sentence expresses exactly the same command as "Give this soup to that man!"). Instead, the word "poor" merely adds an expression of pity to the sentence.

• (little or no possessions): See Thesaurus:impoverished
• (of low quality): inferior
• (to be pitied): pitiable, arm

• (having little or no possessions): rich
• (of low quality): good
• (deficient in a specified way): rich
• (inadequate): adequate

• poorhouse

poor pl (plural only)

1. (with "the") Those who have little or no possessions or money, taken as a group.

   The poor are always with us.

• poro-, roop

From Walloon porea.

poor m

1. leek

poor f (oblique plural poors, nominative singular poor, nominative plural poors)

1. fear