Pauperising

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To drive an individual into a condition of extreme financial hardship and eliminate their means of sustenance and security
2. To cause someone to lose their financial resources and live in extreme need
3. To reduce a person's wealth or assets to a very low level, resulting in hardship

Etymology: "Pauperising" is the present participle of "pauperise", which is the British spelling of "pauperize". The verb is built from "pauper", borrowed from Latin "pauper" meaning "poor", with the suffix "-ise" (or "-ize") added to turn a noun into a verb meaning to make something into the condition named by the noun. The base word itself has a useful reminder in its Latin ancestor. "Pauper" is related to "pauc-", a root connected with few or little, so a pauper was originally someone with little, not simply someone with nothing. English adopted the noun first, and the verb grew out of it, so making someone a pauper became a natural way to describe the process. The -ise ending follows a common pattern, as in "civilise" or "equalise", so the verb needs no special explanation beyond its parts. Its meaning is direct: to reduce people to poverty, or to cause a population to become poor.