Meaning

noun a pauper who lives by begging

verb be beyond the resources of

verb reduce to beggary

originFrom Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar (“beggar”), from Middle English beggen (“to beg”), equivalent to beg + -ar. Alternative etymology derives Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar from Old French begart, originally a member of the Beghards, a lay brotherhood of mendicants in the Low Countries, from Middle Dutch beggaert (“mendicant”), with pejorative suffix (see -ard); the order is…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0