Pauperizing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The action of driving a person or community into extreme poverty and destitution involves stripping away their financial resources and stability
2. The process of rendering individuals or groups financially destitute typically involves severe deprivation and loss of wealth
3. The act of causing someone or a community to fall into severe poverty entails the removal of essential economic resources and support systems

Etymology: "Pauper" came into English from Latin "pauper," meaning "poor," and the Latin word itself is often linked to roots meaning "few" and "to produce," a sense of having little yield. The suffix doing the heavy lifting here is "-ize," which traces back through Late Latin "-izare" to the Greek "-izein" and was used to form verbs meaning "to make into" or "to cause to become." Put together, "pauperize" means to make someone poor. The verb entered English through Middle French "-iser" and Middle English "-isen," and the form that eventually became standard in English was "-ize." This is a common pattern: English took many verbs ending in this suffix from French, and later writers coined new ones freely, such as "pauperize," built directly on the existing noun.

Synonyms: impoverishing, destituting, bankrupting

Antonyms: enriching, affluencing, prospering