Penury

noun

A severe, crippling lack of money or other necessities; a state of acute poverty
Stinginess or a drastic disinclination to spend money

Usage

For those unused to city living, the sight of homeless people begging on streets can be disturbing. Many feel more than a little uncomfortable in the presence of these unfortunate examples of penury, even when advised by more experienced urbanites on the etiquette of whether or not to part with one's change. Truly, the state of utter destitution implied by penury touches us on a very fundamental level, troubling even the most stoic of consciences.

Penury is a somewhat academic word that describes a very material issue: a state of unmitigated poverty. Usually, penury connotes an almost complete lack of money, to the point where people suffering from it are reduced to homelessness and beggary. This isn't just a "darn, I'll have to cut back on my trips to the movies" kind of scarcity; no, penury is absolute pennilessness, and those subject to it must simply focus on trying to survive. Often, penury is used in abstract, bookish settings, and it is applied in a manner that is somewhat detached from the reality of absolute poverty.

Although the word most often refers to monetary destitution, penury can be used to describe any paucity of resources. For example, if you are living in an area subject to a severe drought, your neighborhood might be in penury in regards to drinking water.

Another, less common usage of penury describes an extreme disinclination to spend money. The frugality implied by this usage is understood to be prohibitive and perhaps even obsessive or unnecessary. This phenomenon is often brought about by fears that money will run out or that some sudden calamity will render funds hard to come by. Some people who grew up during the Great Depression occasionally exhibit a tame version of this kind of penury - for instance, your great-grandfather may keep a jar of loose nails and screws around "just in case."

Example: The Dust Bowl of the late 1930s left thousands of farmers in penury.

Example: My aunt's penury compelled her to spend several hours cutting coupons every Sunday.

Origin

Perhaps because the word represents a relatively simple concept, the origins of penury are straightforward. First appearing in English during the fifteenth century, penury is a direct translation of the Latin word penuria, which means "a want or lack of something." Good thing Latin has no penury of words to lend to English!

Derivative Words

Penurious: The adjective form of penury describes something as related or subject to poverty or a severe lack of something.

Example: The penurious family made a quasi-home for themselves under an underpass.

Penuriously: The adverb form of penury characterizes an action as related to a lack of assets.

Example: The homeless man wheeled a shopping cart around the neighborhood, penuriously looking for bottles to recycle.

Penuriousness: This noun describes the quality of penury, indicating a dearth or state of poverty.

Example: The penuriousness of the family living under the underpass prompted a local billionaire to buy them a house.

In Literature

From H.G. Wells' The Pickwick Papers:

There were a number of skirmishes with Mrs. Hall on matters of domestic discipline, but in every case until late April, when the first signs of penury began, he over-rode her by the easy expedient of an extra payment.

Here, penury is used to mark the point at which the character no longer has the necessary funds to buy his way onto his landlady's good side.

From Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali (Song 36):

This is my prayer to thee, my lord
Strike, strike at the root of penury in my heart.

Here, the Bard of Bengal uses penury to refer to his spiritual poverty and implores his lord to get rid of it.

Mnemonic

Penury hasn't got a penny