English
indigent
Indigent comes from Latin indigēns ‘needing, wanting, requiring, desiring, lacking’, and goes back to indigeō ‘to need’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEindigeō‘to need’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEindigēns‘needing, wanting, requiring, desiring, lacking’present participle of indigeō
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400indigent
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
- Englishearliest quotation 1620same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEindigeō‘to need’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEindigēns‘needing, wanting, requiring, desiring, lacking’present participle of indigeō
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400indigent
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
- Englishearliest quotation 1620same form
Earliest quotation: 1620, Francis Bacon, Instauratio Magnus: “Again some Bodies dissolve both in Fire and Water,…”
A compound of indu ‘in, within’ + egeō ‘to be in need, want’
Proto-Indo-European *h₁én ‘in’
Proto-Italic *en ‘in’
Latin in ‘in, within’
Every English word from Latin indigeō
Today it means
adj Poor; destitute; in need.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin indigeō / indigent