destitute

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English destitut,^[2] borrowed from Latin dēstitūtus (“abandoned, forsaken”),^[3][4][5][6] the past participle of dēstituō (“to forsake, abandon, desert”),^[3][4][7] formed from dē- (“away”) and statuō (“to set up, place”),^[3][4][5][8] the causative of stō (“to stand”),^[4][5][9] from Proto-Indo-European *stā- (“to stand”).^[10][4] The vowel of the stem is weakened in the compound.^[7][11] The rare verb destitute is partly formed from the adjective and partly a rendering of the Latin verb;^[3][6] the OED compares French destituer.^[3] The word is related to statute and constitute.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Abandoned, forsaken, deserted: 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible (Revelation 18:17).^[3] Barnhart dates it about 1384, also in the Wycliffe Bible,^[5] and Etymonline about 1400.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word was at first literal, used of places that had been abandoned.^[4][6] From 1530 it was used of people left friendless or helpless,^[3] a sense that slowly merged with the modern one.^[3] From 1413 it also meant deprived of something once possessed.^[3] From before 1500 it meant devoid of or lacking something desirable, as in the phrase destitute of.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "forsaken; abandoned" and "in want of".^[12] The usual modern sense, without the necessities of life, is recorded by the OED from 1735,^[3] while Barnhart dates the sense of lacking necessities, needy, to 1539^[5] and Etymonline to the 1530s.^[4] From 1737 the destitute were destitute people collectively.^[3][4] In East Anglian dialect a farmer destitute of a farm was one who had no farm to move to.^[13]

Timeline

• 1382 – abandoned, forsaken, deserted (now obsolete).^[3]
• 1413 – deprived of something formerly possessed.^[3]
• before 1500 – devoid of, entirely lacking in something.^[3]
• 1530 – of people, forsaken, friendless, forlorn; verb, to forsake (obsolete by 1673).^[3]
• c. 1540 – verb, to deprive of, to make destitute.^[3]
• 1593 – verb, to lay waste.^[3]
• 1653 – verb, to depose from office.^[3]
• 1735 – without the necessities of life, in absolute want.^[3] Barnhart dates the sense of being needy to 1539.^[5]
• 1737 – noun, a destitute person, as in the destitute.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Without money, food, shelter or the other means of living; utterly impoverished: The flood left hundreds of families destitute.^[14][3][2]
2. destitute of: completely without something; devoid of: a speech destitute of humour.^[14][3][2]
3. (obsolete, 1382–1606) Abandoned, forsaken.^[3][14][2]

Noun

1. the destitute: people who lack the means of living: a night shelter for the destitute.^[3][4]

Verb

1. (rare) To deprive of something; to make destitute.^[3][6][2]
2. (archaic) To depose from office.^[2][3]
3. (obsolete, 1530–1673) To forsake, abandon.^[3][6][2]

Word family

• destituteness
• destitutely

Related words

• destitution
• statute
• constitute
• institute
• substitute
• stand

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins