Other forms: paupers
A pauper is somebody with no money at all. Die a pauper, a pauper's grave, from pauper to prince.
It was a legal category rather than a description: under the old English poor law a pauper was somebody receiving relief, and a pauper's grave was an unmarked public burial. It is the same Latin word as poor, arriving separately.
1nounpauperSomebody with no money at all.
“He died a pauper, having spent his whole fortune on gambling.”
pauper is a person.
Latin pauper means poor. Poor is the same word arriving through French, so the two are doublets.
Proto-Indo-European
*peh₂w-
Latin
pauper — poor
English, today
pauper
Latin pauper (“poor”). Originally a legal term. a doublet of poor.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA