paltry
/ˈpɔltɹi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.86 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "This is indeed a paltry flyer about a silly product."
- "She made some paltry excuse and left."
- "There are a great many languages, like Eskimo and Nootka and, aside from paltry exceptions, the Semitic languages, that cannot compound radical elements."
- "Could someone hope to survive on such a paltry income?"
- "Student grants these days are paltry, and many students have to take out loans."
- "As for those Samnites, and the men of Uz, That bought my Spanish oils and wines of Greece, Here have I purs'd their paltry silverlings. Fie, what a trouble 'tis to count this trash!"
Etymology
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”), Saterland Frisian Palte (“strip; band; tape”), dialectal German Palter (“rag”), Danish pjalt (“rag, tatter”), Swedish palta (“rag”). See also palterly and pelting.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: paltrig, *paltro, *paltrô, *polto-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpɔltɹi/
- British English: /ˈpɒltɹi/