different between scanty vs poor

English

Etymology

scant +? -y

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?skænti/
• Rhymes: -ænti

Adjective

scanty (comparative scantier, superlative scantiest)

1. Somewhat less than is needed in amplitude or extent.
2. Sparing; niggardly; parsimonious; stingy.
   • 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard

     In illustrating a point of difficulty, be not too scanty of words.

Derived terms

• scantily
• scantiness

Translations

See also

• meagre
• scant
• slender
• insufficient
• deficient
• scarce
• exiguous

Further reading

• scanty in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• scanty in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• scanty at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Cantys

English

Etymology

From Middle English povre, povere, from Old French (and Anglo-Norman) povre, poure (Modern French pauvre), from Latin pauper (English pauper), from Old Latin *pavo-pars (literally “getting little”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh?w- (“few, small”). Cognate with Old English f?awa (“little, few”). Doublet of pauper.

Displaced native Middle English earm, arm (“poor”) (from Old English earm; See arm), Middle English wantsum, wantsome (“poor, needy”) (from Old Norse vant (“deficiency, lack, want”)), Middle English unlede (“poor”) (from Old English unl?de), Middle English unweli, unwely (“poor, unwealthy”) (from Old English un- + weli? (“well-to-do, prosperous, rich”).

Pronunciation

• (General Australian, General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /po?/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /p??/, /pu?/, /p??/
• (Indian English) IPA^(key): /?p?(?)?(r)/
• (Received Pronunciation)
  • IPA^(key): /p??(?)/, /p??(?)/
• (US)
  • IPA^(key): /p??/, /p??/
• Rhymes: -??(?), -??(?)
• Homophones: pour, pore (with the pour-poor merger)
• Homophone: paw (in some non-rhotic accents, with the pour-poor merger)

Adjective

poor (comparative poorer, superlative poorest)

1. With no or few possessions or money, particularly in relation to contemporaries who do have them.

   The poor are always with us.

2. Of low quality.
3. Used to express pity.

   • Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
4. Deficient in a specified way.

5. Inadequate, insufficient.
   • a. 1686, Benjamin Calamy, Sermon 1

     That I have wronged no Man, will be a poor plea or apology at the last day.

6. Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek.

   • Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Usage notes

When the word "poor" is used to express pity, it does not change the meaning of the sentence. For example, in the sentence "Give this soup to that poor man!", the word "poor" does not serve to indicate which man is meant (and so the sentence expresses exactly the same command as "Give this soup to that man!"). Instead, the word "poor" merely adds an expression of pity to the sentence.

Synonyms

• (with no or few possessions or money): See Thesaurus:impoverished
• (of low quality): inferior
• (to be pitied): pitiable, arm

Antonyms

• (with no or few possessions): rich, wealthy
• (of low quality): good
• (deficient in a specified way): rich
• (inadequate): adequate

Hyponyms

Derived terms

• deserving poor
• poorhouse
• undeserving poor

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• poro-, roop

Limburgish

Etymology

From Walloon porea.

Noun

poor m

1. leek

Old French

Noun

poor f (oblique plural poors, nominative singular poor, nominative plural poors)

1. fear