eleemosynary

adjective

el·ee·mo·sy·nary ˌe-li-ˈmä-sə-ˌner-ē

-ˈmō-;

-ˈmä-zə-

Synonyms of eleemosynary next

: of, relating to, or supported by charity

Did you know?

A grammarian once asserted in reference to eleemosynary that "a long and learned word like this should only be used under the stress of great need." Whether or not you agree with such prescriptions, the word eleemosynary isn't exactly ubiquitous. Its tricky spelling doesn’t do it any favors—though this wasn’t always the case. The good people of early England had mercy on themselves when it came to spelling and shortened the root of eleemosynary, the Latin eleemosyna, to ælmes, which they used to mean "charity." (You may be more familiar with alms, an ælmes derivative that refers to food, money, etc., given to the poor.) The original Latin root, however, was resurrected in the early 17th century to give us our modern conundrum of a spelling.