impecunious

[ im-pi-kyoo-nee-uhs ]

adjective

1. having little or no money; penniless; poor.

   Synonyms: poverty-stricken, destitute

impecunious

/ ˌɪmpɪˈkjuːnɪəs; ˌɪmpɪkjuːnɪˈɒsɪtɪ /

adjective

1. without money; penniless

Derived Forms

• ˌimpeˈcuniously, adverb
• ˌimpeˈcuniousness, noun

Other Words From

• impe·cuni·ous·ly adverb
• impe·cuni·ous·ness im·pe·cu·ni·os·i·ty [im-pi-kyoo-nee-, os, -i-tee], noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of impecunious¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; im- ² + obsolete pecunious “wealthy,” from Latin pecūniōsus, equivalent to pecūni(a) “wealth” + -ōsus -ous

Word History and Origins

Origin of impecunious¹

C16: from im- (not) + -pecunious, from Latin pecūniōsus wealthy, from pecūnia money

Synonym Study

See poor.

Example Sentences

No “cheap politicians, failures, bummers, scrubs, impecunious clerks, bookkeepers, lawyers, doctors. … We need workers! Hustlers! Men of brains, brawn, and guts! Men who have a little capital and a good deal of energy — first class men!”

From Los Angeles Times

When Ian Ross first fetched up in the United States in 1978 — an impish, dimpled and impecunious middle-class Englishman who had been instrumental in the founding of Radio Caroline, the pirate radio station, and who almost as improbably had married into the minor aristocracy — he was one in a wave of expatriate British émigrés fleeing the country’s increasing austerities.

From New York Times

Dalton’s impassioned singing style — as if Billie Holiday took up residence in an impecunious Southern misfit — has made fans out a range of contemporaries, from the art-rock auteur Nick Cave to the harpist Joanna Newsom.

From Washington Post

We’re not talking public or academic institutions, but what any impecunious collector vainly covets — an English country-house library or what Byers calls a “bookwrapt” study like that of Henry Higgins in “My Fair Lady.”

From Washington Post

Among them is the sardonic confidant, St. Quentin; the down-at-the heels military man, Major Brutt; and the impecunious, high-living chancer, Eddie.

From Washington Post