pobre

Forms

pobre m or f (masculine and feminine plural pobres, superlative pobrísimo or (higher register) paupérrimo)^[1] The metathesised probe is old and widespread in popular speech;^[2][3] proveza appears in the first half of the 14th century, and probe is the Asturian form.^[2][3] A feminine pobra occurs in the Fuero Juzgo and later as a jocular or vulgar form;^[4][5][2] Autoridades records it for beggar women.^[4][5][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pauper (“poor”).^[2][6][7][1] Castilian and Portuguese continue the classical accusative, with one form for both genders, while the other western Romance languages start from the Late Latin variant with a separate feminine form.^[2]

The same word is Portuguese pobre, Galician pobre, Catalan pobre, Occitan paubre, French pauvre and Italian povero.^[2][8][9] Menéndez Pidal thought that /p/ after /au/ should have stayed voiceless, and set up Vulgar Latin *poperem as the base;^[2][10] Gómez de Silva follows him.^[2][10] Corominas rejects this: /s/ is voiced after /au/ in cosa, and the Occitan and Catalan words, with open /ɔ/, cannot come from a form with /o/, so the classical Latin form is the only valid base.^[2]

The Latin adjective goes back to a Proto-Italic thematic adjective that moved into the third declension by analogy with its opposite.^[11][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *peh₂u-(o-)p(o)rh₃-o- (“providing little”), a compound of *peh₂w- (“few, small”), seen in paucus,^[12] and probably *perh₃- (“to grant, provide”).^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to a charter of 1200 in Oelschläger's list, with Berceo among the early writers;^[2][13] DEMel has pobres in a document of 1198.^[2][13] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) tells Nathan's parable: el uno era rico e el otro era pobre.^[14] In the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) a son must support his padre pobre.^[14]

Semantic evolution

In the prose of Alfonso X the word already meant needy, scanty or lacking something (pobre de voluntad), humble, and of a wife, meek and obedient.^[4] Covarrubias in 1611 derived it from Latin pauper and quoted Martial's line that having nothing is not poverty.^[15] The 1726 Autoridades gives the beggar, with the jocular feminine pobra, and the sense “scanty”, illustrated by una lengua pobre de voces.^[5]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 also lists “humble, of little value” and “unhappy, wretched”, and that of 1843 the old sense “peaceable, meek, faint-hearted”.^[16][17] Before the noun the adjective expresses pity rather than want;^[1][18] Cejador's notes on the Quijote gloss el pobre caballero as a word of compassion.^[1][18] The superlative is pobrísimo or, in a higher register, paupérrimo, from the Latin superlative.^[1][2] Tagalog and other Philippine languages borrowed the word as Tagalog pobre.^[1]

Timeline

• 1200 – the first record according to Corominas, in a charter.^[2][6]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar contrasts rico and pobre.^[14]
• 1220–1250 – the derivative pobreza is recorded.^[6]
• 1254 – the Fuero Juzgo uses the feminine pobra.^[4]
• first half of the 14th century – the metathesised proveza in the Cuento de Otas.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives the word from Latin pauper.^[15]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records pobra as a jocular feminine.^[5]
• 1775 – pobras in a text from Lima.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin pauper.^[20]

Meanings

Adjective

1. poor, needy: lacking what is needed to live; also as a noun, a poor person: Era una familia pobre.^[7][1]
2. Scanty, insufficient, lacking: un suelo pobre en nitrógeno.^[7][4]
3. Humble, of little value or importance.^[7][4]
4. (before the noun) Unhappy, wretched, pitiable: El pobre chico no sabía nada.^[7][1]
5. Peaceable, quiet and well-meaning; faint-hearted.^[7][17]

Noun

1. A beggar.^[7][5]
2. pobre de solemnidad: someone notoriously poor; the DLE explains it as a poor person who begged at solemn feasts.^[21][7]

Word family

• pobrete
• pobreza
• empobrecer
• pobremente
• pobretón
• pobretería
• pobredad

Related words

• paupérrimo
• depauperar
• pauperismo
• Latin pauper
• Portuguese pobre

Usage notes

The meaning changes with the position: un hombre pobre is a man without money, un pobre hombre a pitiable or insignificant one.^[1] ¡Pobre de mí! is an exclamation of self-pity, and with another pronoun it can be a threat.^[22][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 584
3. ^ a b Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. probe
4. ^ a b c d e f Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. pobre
5. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. pobre
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pobre
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. pobre
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 6, 628
10. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
13. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. pobre
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. pobre
15. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1219
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 685
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 572
18. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 884
19. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. pobra
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 843
21. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. pobre
22. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 549