Meaning

noun people without possessions or wealth (considered as a group)

adjective deserving or inciting pity; ; ; - Galsworthy

adjective having little money or few possessions

originInherited 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 wantsome, Middle English unlede (“poor”) (from Old English unlǣde), Middle English unweli, unwely (“poor, unwealthy”) (from Old English un- +…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0