Beggar

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛɡə(ɹ)

Origin

From Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar ("beggar"), from beggen ("to beg"), equivalent to beg + -er.

Alternative etymology derives 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”).

Full definition of beggar

Noun

1. A person who begs.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 13, “… They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.
• 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.
• 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, :I'm to be a poor, crawling beggar, sponging for rum, when I might be rolling in a coach!

Synonyms

• (who begs) mendicant, panhandler, schnorrer, spanger, truant
• (extremely poor person) palliard, pauper, vagabond

Derived terms

Verb

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

Synonyms

• ruin

Derived terms

Anagrams

• bagger