underprivileged

Etymology

It is formed from English under- + privileged.^[2][3][4][5] The OED takes the second part as the noun privilege.^[6] The adjective is a past participle of the verb,^[5] which is partly from the noun and partly from Old French privilegier;^[5][6] the noun goes back to Latin privilegium (“a law for one person; prerogative”), from privus (“individual”) and lex (“law”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Less privileged than others, socially disadvantaged: 1896, in The Princetonian.^[6][2][5] Random House dated the word only to 1920–25.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word came to describe people whose standard of living falls below an accepted norm, and it is chiefly applied to persons.^[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged defines it as deprived, through social or economic conditions, of some of the basic rights that all members of a civilized society should have, and also simply as poor.^[2] Used as a noun with the, for underprivileged people as a group, it is recorded from 1935, in A. P. Herbert's What a Word!.^[6][5]

Timeline

• 1896 – less privileged than others, socially disadvantaged.^[6][2][5]
• 1935 – noun, the underprivileged, underprivileged people.^[6][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lacking the rights, opportunities and advantages that others in the same society have; deprived or disadvantaged: a charity for underprivileged teenagers.^[7][8][2]
2. Of places: poor, economically depressed: a school in an underprivileged neighbourhood.^[2][9]

Noun

1. the underprivileged: underprivileged people as a group.^[6][5]

Related words

• privilege
• privileged

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster