A word of sympathy for the penurious (4)
I believe the answer is:
poor
'the penurious' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'a word of sympathy' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'por' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for poor that I've seen before include "Having little money and few possessions" , "Without means" , "Shoddy" , "Rotten" , "On low income" .)