Aug 17, 2022 18:13
2 yrs ago
47 viewers *
English term

impoverished

Non-PRO English Social Sciences General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters self-help book on regret
Dear colleagues,
I have a doubt about the meaning of "impoverished" in the sentence at the very end of the passage below, taken from a self-help book on regret. To be honest, I find it difficult to understand the comparison...
Does "impoverished" simply mean "being extremely poor" or does it mean "having become very poor because of a lost bet"?
Thank you very much for your help!

************************
Do you think you have few resources of your own, that you have few positive sources of pleasure and meaning in your life, and that you will lack the ability to make better things happen? If so, you may not be very willing to take chances on challenging tasks because you believe that you lack the ability to recover from losses and you do not see yourself as having a wide range of alternative sources of reward in your life. Without this sense of effectiveness and competence, you will view a negative outcome as depleting or devastating because you see yourself as having little to fall back on. So, regret will be something that you might dwell on since you do not see yourself as capable of overcoming losses. It's like an *** impoverished ***person losing a bet and finding that he has no money left.
Change log

Aug 17, 2022 21:02: Helena Chavarria changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (3): philgoddard, AllegroTrans, Helena Chavarria

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Discussion

haribert (asker) Aug 17, 2022:
Dear Thomas, you're absolutely right! It's not "poorer", but "with no money/mental resources left".
Thank you very much for your valuable help!
Thomas T. Frost Aug 17, 2022:
@Asker 'Asker: So, maybe I could slightly rephrase the sentence as follows: it would be as if a poor person made a bet, lost it and found herself even poorer.'
Yes, almost, except that 'even poorer' is not the same as 'no money left'. I think it's important to distinguish, as the person in the psychological situation would fear simply having no mental resources left at all, not simply having less.

Responses

+2
12 mins
Selected

a person with not much money

In this case, a poor person uses the little money they have left to gamble. When they lose the bet, they realise that they've lost the little money they had.
Note from asker:
Thank you, Helena, for your contribution!
Peer comment(s):

agree AllegroTrans
2 hrs
Thank you, Allegro :-)
agree Yvonne Gallagher : You were first with right idea...and find themselves with even fewer resources than before
19 hrs
Thank you, Yvonne :-)
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you so much, Helena, for your help! Many many thanks also to all other colleagues for their contribution and "agrees". A special thanks to Thomas for helping me understand the metaphor. "
+1
12 mins

extremely poor

The comparison at the end refers to the following course of action:

1. You are extremely poor.
2. You take a risk to try to lift yourself up by betting the little money you have.
3. The risk backfires and you lose that money.
4. Now you're left with nothing, and this stings even more than it would otherwise.
Note from asker:
thank you so much, Maciej, for your contribution!
Peer comment(s):

agree philgoddard
1 hr
neutral AllegroTrans : Everything (including being poor) is a matter of degree but I think "extremely" is unwarranted here
2 hrs
Fair enough, though I used that primarily to pick from the asker's two options in the OP ("being extremely poor" or "having become very poor").
neutral Yvonne Gallagher : Impoverished just means "poor"
1 day 36 mins
Something went wrong...
+2
14 mins

poor

The text says: 'you will view a negative outcome as depleting or devastating because you see yourself as having little to fall back on,' which is a state where the person is already poor in terms of mental resources, so they avoid taking risks, as they are worried they would be unable to cope if it went wrong. They are not in this state of poverty because of something they did. In the analogy, the person is already poor and fears losing the rest of their money if they were to lose a bet.
Note from asker:
Thank you so much, Thomas, for your help! So, maybe I could slightly rephrase the sentence as follows: it would be as if a poor person made a bet, lost it and found herself even poorer
Dear Thomas, I would have liked to give points to you, too, for being so kind as to help me understand the metaphor... but it's not possible... Many many thanks!
Peer comment(s):

agree Anastasia Kalantzi
44 mins
Thanks, Anastasia
agree AllegroTrans
2 hrs
Thanks
Something went wrong...
-1
4 hrs

made poor

Impoverish:
To reduce to poverty; make poor.
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/impoverish

It's like an impoverished person losing a bet and finding that he has no money left.
=
It's like a person made poor by losing a bet and finding that he has no money left.

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Note added at 23 hrs (2022-08-18 17:39:00 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The author used "impoverished", and not "poor" for a reason.
The person had not been poor, but made poor after losing the bet. Hence the regret.

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Note added at 23 hrs (2022-08-18 17:46:07 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Your second interpretation is right: "having become very poor because of a lost bet"
Peer comment(s):

disagree AllegroTrans : In asker's text the person is "poor" before losing the bet; and your two sentences do not have the same meaning
12 hrs
How do you know the person is poor before losing the bet?
disagree Yvonne Gallagher : Not the meaning here
15 hrs
agree Gulfly
2 days 14 hrs
Thank you!
Something went wrong...
-1
2 days 18 hrs

Extremely poor

I concur with those who said this word mean 'extremely poor.' So, the expectations of someone who is very poor is that he wins a bet at all cost, but he gets disappointed when he loses the bet and realizes that he is stuck in the same situation, without money.
Peer comment(s):

disagree AllegroTrans : Aside from being wrong this has already been suggested by someone else so you shouldn't be reposting but using the "agree" button if you want to concur
6 hrs
Something went wrong...
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