penury
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penury
- /ˈpɛnjʊɹi/ UK
- /ˈpɛnjəɹi/ US
Where it comes from
From Late Middle English penuri, penurie (“destitution, need, poverty; dearth, lack, scarcity”), borrowed from Latin pēnūria (“need, scarcity, want”) + Middle English -i, -ie (suffix forming abstract and collective nouns); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to paene (“almost, nearly; barely, hardly, scarcely”, adverb), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hate; to hurt”).
noun penuries
- Extreme need or want; destitution, poverty; (countable) an instance of this. As he [Jesus] behelde⸝ he ſawe the ryche men⸝ howe they caſt in their offeringꝭ [offeringis] into the treſury. He ſawe alſo a certayne povre widdowe⸝ which caſt ĩ [in] thydre two mytes. And he ſaid: of a trueth I ſaye vnto you⸝ this povre widdowe hath putt in moare thẽ [then, i.e., than] they all. F
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Often followed by of: a lack of something; a dearth, a scarcity.
VVith theſe and many others as conſiderable, vvhich partly vvillingly, and partly in the penury of Books, forgettingly I paſſe, […]
Similar: barrenness, insufficiency
- The quality of being miserly; miserliness, parsimoniousness, stinginess. God ſometimes puniſhes one ſinne vvith another; pride vvith adultery, drunkenneſſe vvith murder, careleſeneſſe vvith irreligion, idleneſſe vvith vanity, penury vvith oppreſſion, irreligion vvith blaſphemy, and that vvith Atheiſme, and therefore it is no vvonder if he puniſhes a ſinner by a ſinner.
Translations
Every language
noun extreme need or want — see also destitution, poverty
| Español | pauperismo, pobreza, pobrisimo |
|---|---|
| Ελληνικά | πενία penía, ανέχεια anécheia, ένδεια éndeia |
| Русский | нищета́ niščetá, нужда́ nuždá |
noun lack of something — see also dearth, scarcity
| Français | pénurie |
|---|---|
| Ελληνικά | ανέχεια anécheia, ανεπάρκεια anepárkeia |
| Русский | недоста́ток nedostátok |
Talk about this word "penury." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/penury. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. penury. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/penury "penury." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/penury.Cite this
@misc{penury_2026,
title = {penury},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/penury},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
