Quick Definition
poor
Strong's Definition
starving, i.e. indigent
Derivation: from a primary (to toil for daily subsistence);
KJV Usage: poor
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
πένης, πένητος, ὁ (πένομαι to work for one's living; the Latinpenuria and Greek πεινάω are akin to it (cf. Vanicek, p. 1164); hence, πένης equivalent to ἐκ πόνου καί ἐνεργείας τό ζῆν ἔχων, Etym. Magn.), poor: 2Co_9:9. (From Sophocles and Herodotus down; the Sept. for ΰΖαΐιεο, ςΘπΔι, γΗΜμ, ψΘωΡ, etc.) [SYNONYMS: πένης, πτωχός: "πένης occurs but once in the N. T., and then in a quotation from the O. T., while πτωχός occurs between thirty and forty times .... The πένης may be so poor that he earns his bread by daily labor; the πτωχός that he only obtains his living by begging." Trench, § xxxvi.; cf. Schmidt, chapter 85, 4; chapter 186.]
Mounce Concise Greek Dictionary
πένης penēs 1x
pr. one who labors for his bread; poor, needy, 2Co_9:9
Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon
πένης , -ητος , ὁ
( <πένομαι , to work for one's daily bread),
[in LXX for H34 , H6041 , H1800 , etc.;]
one who works for his living, a labourer, a poor man: 2Co_9:9 .†
SYN.: πτωχός , properly a beggar and implying deeper poverty than Papyri ( v. Tr., Syn. , § xxxvi, Abbott, Essays , 78).
Moulton & Milligan — Vocabulary of the Greek NT
πένης [page 502]
poor ( 2Co_9:9 ) : P Oxy III. 471 .95 (ii/A.D.) πένης ἄνθρωπος [ἐν ] εὐτελέσιν ἱμάτίοις , poor man wearing cheap clothes (Edd.), P Ryl II. 62 .11 (transl. from Latin iii/A.D.) δύναμαι χαρίσασθαι καὶ πένητι [πλοῦ ]τ̣ον , PSI II. 120 .47 (a collection of sayings iv/A.D. ?) πένης ὢν πλουσίοις μὴ ὁμίλει , and BGU IV. 1024 vii. 9 (end iv/A.D.) τις γραῦς καὶ πένης . See also P Flor III. 296 .18 (vi/A.D.) π ]ένητι καὶ πτωχῷ , which with its context recalls, as the editor points out, Psa_40:2 [MT Psa_41:2 ]. The words are also contrasted in Aristeas 249 : for the subst. πενία cf. ib. 289. See further s.v. πτωχός .
Liddell-Scott — Intermediate Greek Lexicon
πένης πένης, ητος, ὁ, [Etym: πένομαι] "one who works for his daily bread, a day-labourer, a poor man", distinguished from πτωχός "(beggar)", Hdt. , Soph. , etc. as adj. "of a poor man", δόμος Eur. ; ἐν πένητι σώματι id=Eur. : c. gen., π. χρημάτων "poor in" money, id=Eur. ; π. φίλων Plat. :— comp. πενέστερος Xen. ; Sup. πενέστατος Dem.
STEPBible — Tyndale Abridged Greek Lexicon
πένης, -ητος, ὁ
(πένομαι, to work for one's daily bread), [in LXX for אֶבְיוֹן, עָנִי, דַּל, etc. ;]
one who works for his living, a labourer, a poor man: 2Co.9:9.†
SYN.: πτωχός, properly a beggar and implying deeper poverty than π. (see Tr., Syn., § xxxvi, Abbott, Essays, 78) (AS)