empobrecer

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese emprobecer. By surface analysis, em- +‎ pobre +‎ -ecer.

• Hyphenation: em‧po‧bre‧cer

empobrecer (first-person singular present empobreço, first-person singular preterite empobreci, past participle empobrecido)

1. (transitive) to impoverish (to make poor)
2. (intransitive) to impoverish (to become poor)

From en- +‎ Late Latin pauperāscere, present active infinitive of pauperāscō, probably through an unattested variant *pauperēscō. Alternatively through an archaic *pobrecer, from the same source.

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /empobɾeˈθeɾ/
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /empobɾeˈseɾ/

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɾ
• Syllabification: em‧po‧bre‧cer

empobrecer (first-person singular present empobrezco, first-person singular preterite empobrecí, past participle empobrecido)

1. (transitive) to impoverish, make poor, break financially

• “empobrecer”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014