paltry
adjUK /ˈpɒltɹi/ · US /ˈpɔltɹi/
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.
Trashy, trivial, of little value.
- This is indeed a paltry flyer about a silly product.
- She made some paltry excuse and left.
1 more example
- There are a great many languages, like Eskimo and Nootka and, aside from paltry exceptions, the Semitic languages, that cannot compound radical elements.1921, Edward Sapir, Language: An introduction to the study of speech:
Of little monetary worth.
- Could someone hope to survive on such a paltry income?
- Student grants these days are paltry, and many students have to take out loans.
2 more examples
- 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!c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act I:
- Meanwhile, the trade deal has left Britain’s fishing communities screaming betrayal, unhappy with their paltry gains and facing expensive barriers to export what they have caught.2022 July 8, Daniel Boffey, “Collapsing public support suggests Brexit is anything but done”, in The Guardian:
Despicable; contemptibly unimportant.
- a paltry coward
- "An aged man is but a paltry thing, / A tattered coat upon a stick"1928, William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium:
- Derived terms
- paltrily, paltriness, unpaltry