impoverish
Meaning
to make a person or area poor
to make something worse in quality
Structure
Usage
the war served only to impoverish the civilian population.
over-farming can impoverish the soil, making it less fertile.
the economic policies were criticized for potentially impoverishing the middle class.
Etymology
the word 'impoverish' entered english in the late middle english period, borrowed from the old french verb 'empovrir', which itself was built from the latin elements. the core is the latin adjective 'pauper', meaning 'poor'. the prefix 'im-' is an assimilated form of 'in-', used here in an intensive or causative sense, meaning 'to bring into a state of'. the suffix '-ish' is a common english verb-forming ending. thus, the literal construction is 'to cause to become poor'. this etymological logic is directly preserved in the modern dual meanings: to make someone financially poor, or to deplete the quality or richness of something.
Analysis
- im: latin origin, a variant of the prefix 'in-' meaning 'in, into, towards, causing'. - pover: latin origin, from the root 'pauper-' meaning 'poor'. it is a direct substring of the english spelling, derived from the latin 'pauper'. - ish: a verb-forming suffix of germanic origin, used to create verbs meaning 'to make, to become, to cause to be'.