different between beggar vs mendicity

English

Alternative forms

• begger (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar (“beggar”), from Middle English beggen (“to beg”), equivalent to beg +? -ar.

Alternative etymology derives Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar from Old French begart, originally a member of the Beghards, a lay brotherhood of mendicants in the Low Countries, from Middle Dutch beggaert (“mendicant”), with pejorative suffix (see -ard); the order is said to be named after the priest Lambert le Bègue of Liège (French for “Lambert the Stammerer”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?b???/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b???/
• Rhymes: -???(?)

Noun

beggar (plural beggars)

1. A person who begs.
   • 1983, Stanley Rosen, Plato’s Sophist: The Drama of Original & Image, St. Augustine’s Press, p. 62:

     Odysseus has returned to his home disguised as a beggar.

2. A person suffering from extreme poverty.
3. (colloquial, sometimes endearing) A mean or wretched person; a scoundrel.

   What does that silly beggar think he's doing?

4. (Britain) A minced oath for bugger.

Synonyms

• (who begs): mendicant, panhandler, schnorrer, spanger, truant, see also Thesaurus:beggar
• (extremely poor person): palliard, pauper, vagabond, see also Thesaurus:pauper

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

beggar (third-person singular simple present beggars, present participle beggaring, simple past and past participle beggared)

1. (transitive) To make a beggar of someone; impoverish.
2. (transitive) To exhaust the resources of; to outdo.

Synonyms

• ruin

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• bagger

English

Etymology

From Old French mendicité, from Latin mendicitas.

Noun

mendicity (countable and uncountable, plural mendicities)

1. the state of being a beggar; mendicancy or beggary

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:poverty