Having no farthings; extremely poor or without even a small coin to one's name.
From 'farthing' (a quarter-penny coin) plus '-less' (suffix meaning without). Describes someone so impoverished they lack even the smallest denomination of currency.
In Shakespeare's time, being 'farthingless' was genuinely tragic—it meant you couldn't even buy a loaf of bread. The word shows how economic desperation was expressed through the smallest monetary unit.
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