paltry
adj.extremely small or not worth much. You use this to show that something is much less than you expected or needed.
adj.extremely small in amount, value, or importance. Often used to express a sense of disappointment or to emphasize a lack of substance.
“The reward for winning was paltry.”
“The company offered a paltry sum of money for the patent, which the inventor refused to accept.”
“The government's response to the crisis was paltry, failing to address the underlying structural issues that had led to the initial collapse in the first place.”
“You only need to look around at the paltry nods to accessibility in our public spaces or the degrading assessments of people seeking to claim disability benefits.”
From Middle Low German paltrig (“ragged, rubbishy, worthless”), from palter, palte (“cloth, rag, shred”), from Old Saxon paltro, palto (“cloth, rag”), from Proto-Germanic paltrô, paltô (“scrap, rag, patch”). Of uncertain ultimate origin, but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European polto- (“cloth”), see also Proto-Slavic poltьno (“linen”). Cognate with Low German palterig (“ragged, torn”), dialectal German palterig (“paltry”). Compare also Low German palte (“rag”), West Frisian palt (“rag”), Saterland Frisian Palte (“strip; band; tape”), dialectal German Palter (“rag”), Danish pjalt (“rag, tatter”), Swedish palta (“rag”). See also palterly and pelting.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.