Paltry means ridiculously small in amount or worth. So little that offering it is almost an insult.
The contempt is built in, which is why it nearly always attaches to sums of money, so a paltry sum, a paltry increase and a paltry fine are all complaints rather than measurements. It also applies to efforts and excuses. The word is old and its origins are uncertain, possibly from a dialect word for rubbish. Its close relatives are meagre, derisory and measly, and derisory is the most formal.
1adjectivepaltryContemptibly small in amount or value.
“They were offered a paltry two per cent.”
Paltry is ragged. Middle Low German paltrig meant rubbishy or worthless, from palte, a rag or a shred of cloth, so a paltry sum is a scrap of one.
Proto-Indo-European
*polto- — cloth
Proto-Germanic
*paltrô
Old Saxon
*paltro
Middle Low German
paltrig — ragged, rubbishy, worthless
English, today
paltry
Built from
From Middle Low German paltrig (“ragged, rubbishy, worthless”), from palter, palte (“cloth, rag, shred”), from Old Saxon paltro, palto (“cloth, rag”), from Proto-Germanic paltrô, paltô (“scrap, rag, patch”). Of uncertain ultimate origin, but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European polto- (“cloth”), see also Proto-Slavic poltьno (“linen”). Cognate with Low German palterig (“ragged, torn”), dialectal German palterig (“paltry”). Compare also Low German palte (“rag”), West Frisian palt (“rag”), stq Palte (“strip; band; tape”), dialectal German Palter (“rag”), Danish pjalt (“rag, tatter”), Swedish palta (“rag”). See also palterly and pelting.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA