poor

Poor came via Old French povre from Latin pauper ‘poor’. this is thought originally to have been a compound meaning literally ‘getting little’, formed from paucus ‘little’ (a distant relative of English few) and parāre ‘get, prepare’ (source of English prepare). Its derivative paupertās has given English poverty (12^th c.), and pauper itself was acquired by English in the 16th century as a noun meaning ‘poor person’.