pauperculus

Forms

pauperculus (feminine paupercula, neuter pauperculum); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin pauper (“poor”) + -culus, a diminutive.^[1][3] De Vaan traces the base to Proto-Italic *pau(o)-pa/oro- and further to Proto-Indo-European *peh₂u-(o-)p(o)rh₃-o- (“providing little”); it was originally an adjective of the second declension, which probably went over to the third after its opposite dīves “rich”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler find it from Plautus on.^[4][5] In the Persa a speaker says rēs nostrae sunt … pauperculae, “our means are slender”.^[1][6]

Semantic evolution

It means poor, usually with a note of pity or affection,^[1] and was used of people: a poor old man in Plautus, an old woman in Terence, a mother in Horace.^[2][6] Lewis and Short note that Cicero does not use it.^[2] Varro speaks of most poor freemen as pauperculī, and the masculine plural came to stand for “the poor”.^[6] It was also said of things, such as possessions or a dwelling.^[1][6]

The Vulgate uses it of the poor widow who gives her two coins.^[2] British medieval writers apply it to poor people, to those who chose poverty for religious reasons, and to Christ.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a poor old man and of slender means.^[2][1][5]
• 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius speaks of a poor little hut.^[1][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of an old woman.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses the masculine plural for poor freemen.^[6][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a mother.^[2][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate calls the widow of Luke 21:2 vidua paupercula.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Poor, needy, often with pity or affection.^[1][2]
2. Of possessions or a dwelling: Meagre, humble.^[1][6]
3. (masculine plural as a noun) The poor.^[6]
4. (Medieval Latin) Poor by choice, in religious poverty.^[7]

Related words

• paupertās
• pauperiēs

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press