pauperismn.
/ˈpɔːp(ə)rɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˈpɔpəˌrɪz(ə)m/, /ˈpɑpəˌrɪz(ə)m/ 1. The condition of being a pauper; extreme poverty; = pauperdom n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > poverty > [noun] > poor person > poor person in receipt of relief > collectively
almsfolk1460
bead-folk?1465
pauperage1831
pauperism1857
1792 T. H. B. Oldfield Entire Hist. Boroughs Great Brit. I. ii. 8 The petitioners proceeded to establish certain voters who had been refused on the charge of pauperism.
1817 W. Hazlitt in Round Table I. xix. 165 It is a bastard kind of Popery, stripped of its painted pomp and outward ornaments, and reduced to a state of pauperism.
1857 J. Toulmin Smith Parish (new ed.) 145 Thenceforth ‘pauperism’ became a caste in England.
1865 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend I. ii. xiv. 298 The determined old figure with its steady bright eyes was trudging through the streets, away from paralysis and pauperism.
1948 in B. Griffith Amer. Me ii. v. 190 A great deal of Protestantism has been a kind of spiritual pauperism for these Mexicans.
1998 C. Mims When we Die (1999) iii. 43 Between 1550 and about 1650..a man who committed suicide reduced his survivors to pauperism.
2. The existence of a pauper class; poverty, with dependence on public relief or charity, as an established fact or phenomenon in a society. Now chiefly historical.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > poverty > [noun] > poverty with dependence on public relief
pauperism1807
tax-eating1817
poorhouse1821
pauperage1831
pauperdom1833
1807 Monthly Mag. Aug. 30/2 Without endeavouring..to ascertain and class the different causes of the increase of pauperism.
1869 H. Fawcett Man. Polit. Econ. (ed. 3) ii. viii. 217 The advocates of free-trade..predicted that unrestricted commerce would almost extinguish pauperism.
1882 Cent. Mag. July 401/1 These ladies represent an organization that is grappling with the whole vast problem of pauperism in the city and state of New York.
1926 G. M. Trevelyan Hist. Eng. vi. ii. 642 By these all too drastic measures the rot of pauperism was stopped.
1982 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 11 July vi. 12/3 That would require acknowledging that pauperism is an inevitable part of the American economic system.
1992 Daily Tel. (BNC) 5 Apr. 112 In this view, the solution to pauperism lay in ‘eugenics’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1792