One way to hold paltry: a scrap of old cloth. The evidence traces it to Middle Low German paltrig, ragged and worthless, from palte, a rag. A rag is worth nothing and is not worth a second look, and that one picture covers both uses - a thing too slight to matter, and an amount too small to be any use. In both, the speaker is not describing ; the complaint is built into the word.
「paltry」可以想成一塊破布。字源資料說它來自中古低地德語 paltrig（破爛、不值錢），底下的 palte 就是「碎布」。破布不值錢，也不值得多看一眼——這一張圖同時蓋住兩個用法：一個是事情小到不值得花心思，一個是數目小到拿在手上也沒用。不管哪一個，說話的人都不是在中性描述，而是帶著「這太寒酸了」的口氣。
From the word’s history
From Middle Low German paltrig, meaning ragged or worthless, built on palte, a rag or shred of cloth. The ultimate origin is uncertain in the source itself, so the rag is as far back as this goes.
來自中古低地德語 paltrig（破爛、不值錢），底下是 palte「碎布、破布」。資料本身說更早的來源並不確定，所以這裡就停在「破布」這張圖。
Wiktionary, "paltry"
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