Where does “poverty” come from?
Poverty comes from Old French poverté, from Latin paupertas, derived from Latin pauper with the suffix -tus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European peh₂w-.
poverty (English): The quality or state of being poor; lack of...
Definitions
- The quality or state of being poor; lack of...
Ancestry of “poverty”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old French | poverté | poverty; poorness |
| 2 | Latin | paupertās | the state of being poor, poverty; need, indigence |
| 3 | Latin | -tās | ty, -dom, -hood, -ness, -ship |
| 4 | Proto-Indo-European | -teh₂ts | Used to form nouns representing state of being |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | -teh₂ | Used to form nouns representing state of being |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -tós | Creates verbal adjectives from verb stems |