“The young nobleman was Akitada, impecunious descendant of the famous but ill-fated Sugawara clan, twenty-five years old and recently a mere junior clerk in the imperial Ministry of Justice, a position he won only because he had placed first in the university examination.”
The Dragon Scroll, I. J. Parker

impecunious
im⋅pe⋅cu⋅ni⋅ous /,ɪmpə’kju:niəs/
adjective
not having enough money to pay for necessities
syn: hard up, in straitened circumstances, penniless, penurious, pinched
ORIGIN: “lacking in money,” 1596, from in- “not” + Latin pecuniosus “rich,” from pecunia “money, property.”