A pauper is someone who lives in extreme poverty, having almost no money or possessions. Historically, paupers depended on charity or government assistance to survive. In Victorian England, paupers might end up in workhouses, grim institutions where poor people received food and shelter in exchange for hard labor.

The word carries a stronger meaning than just “poor person.” While someone might be poor but still able to support themselves, a pauper has essentially nothing. In Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist, young Oliver grows up as a pauper in a workhouse, owning not even a second set of clothes.

Today, we rarely use pauper in everyday conversation. It appears more often in historical contexts or in the phrase pauper's grave, which refers to unmarked burial grounds for people too poor to afford funerals. Some legal systems still use the term in forma pauperis, a Latin phrase meaning a person can use the courts without paying fees because they cannot afford them.

The word reminds us how differently societies have treated poverty throughout history. While we might describe someone today as struggling financially or living in poverty, calling them a pauper would sound old-fashioned and could feel disrespectful.