beggar
pronunciation
How to pronounce beggar in British English:
UK [ˈbeɡə(r)]
How to pronounce beggar in American English:
US [ˈbeɡər]
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- Noun:
- a pauper who lives by begging
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- Verb:
- be beyond the resources of
- reduce to beggary
Word Origin
- beggar (n.)
- c. 1200, from Old French begart, originally a member of the Beghards, lay brothers of mendicants in the Low Countries, from Middle Dutch beggaert "mendicant," of uncertain origin, with pejorative suffix (see -ard). Compare Beguine. Early folk etymology connected the English word with bag. Form with -ar attested from 14c., but begger was more usual 15c.-17c. The feminine form beggestere is attested as a surname from c. 1300. Beggar's velvet was an old name for "dust bunnies." "Beggers should be no choosers" is in Heywood (1562).
- beggar (v.)
- "reduce to poverty," mid-15c., from beggar (n.). Related: Beggared; beggaring. Figurative use by 1640s.
Example
- 1. It was humiliating for him to feel like a beggar with his own wife .
- 2. Before we threw money to our local beggar , my mother would wrap it in paper .
- 3. At first , obama 's mother gave money to every beggar who stopped at their door .
- 4. One day the man walks past the beggar again and notices the beggar is holding out both his hands .
- 5. A beggar pours his change into the pocket of another , as the sound of jangling money rings out for minutes .