The quality or state of being extremely poor or miserable; the characteristic of resembling or befitting a beggar.
From Middle English 'beggar' + '-liness' (a suffix meaning quality or state). The word 'beggar' itself comes from Old French 'begard' or 'beghard,' members of a medieval lay community. The '-liness' suffix derives from Old English '-ness' variants.
Medieval religious communities called Beghards inspired the word 'beggar,' which eventually became a symbol of poverty itself. Language often works backward in time—what started as a specific group name became a general description of their condition.
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