financially destitute

[taked4700]

Hi,

I came across a phrase of 'financially destitute' today.

So I think 'financially destitute' is redundant.

I'd like to know if you use 'ecologically destitute' or 'psychologically destitue' or not.

I guess 'ecologically destitute' could mean that the land is not fertile at all, and 'psychologically destitue' could indicate that the person is suffering from apathy.

Thanks in advance.

 

[SlickVic9000]

(Not a Teacher)

"Destitute" means "lacking the basic necessities of life" with the inference that one is poor. This meaning is mostly used in reference to people. "Destitute" can also mean "not having" or "a state of lacking". Context would be a bit important in this case to determine the meaning, since they may not be referring to people.
For instance:
"After the Great Recession, John's small business was left financially destitute."

Also, I'm not going to say "ecologically destitute" and "psychologically destitute" are wrong, but I will say they need proper context to make sense, because on their own they don't mean much to me.

 

[emsr2d2]

The only other common phrase I could think of involving the word was "morally destitute" to describe someone who is completely immoral. If you use "destitute" on its own, I believe that native speakers would assume you meant in the financial sense.

 

[Barb_D]

"Morally" was the first word I thought of that could be paired with "desititute." Then is stopped trying to think of others, since even one other word is enough to show that it's not redundant to include "financially."