Word of the Day

: July 29, 2008

impecunious

adjective im-pih-KYOO-nee-uss

What It Means

: having very little or no money usually habitually : penniless

impecunious in Context

My impecunious uncle, who could not afford to buy his own books, usually ended up borrowing mine.

Did You Know?

If "impecunious" means "penniless," then it stands to reason that "pecunious" can describe someone who has a lot of money. That is true, but "pecunious" is used with far less frequency in English than its opposite and is not found in many dictionaries. What's more, on the rare occasion when "pecunious" is put to use in English, it often means not "wealthy" but "miserly or ungenerous," as in "a pecunious attitude toward the less fortunate." "Impecunious" describes somebody who lacks the money to buy necessities, but it does not carry the connotation of desperation found in such words as "indigent" or "destitute." Both "pecunious" and "impecunious" derive via Middle English from the Latin "pecunia," meaning "money."