pittance
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English pitaunce, from Old French pitance, pitence, from Medieval Latin *pietāntia, from Latin pietās (“piety”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈpɪtəns/, [ˈpʰɪʔn̩s]
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Hyphenation: pit‧tance
Noun
[edit]pittance (plural pittances)
- A small allowance of food and drink; a scanty meal.
- A meagre allowance of money or wages.
- 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 74:
- In the very prime of life, Mr. Glentworth found every prospect gone; he had only a meagre pittance, compared to his former expenditure; but he had neither the habits nor the opportunity of increasing it.
- [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:
- So I went to keep house with him at the Why Not? and my aunt sent down my bag of clothes, and would have made over to Elzevir the pittance that my father left for my keep, but he said it was not needful, and he would have none of it.
- 2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:
- Dad was forced to claim benefit money from the government. It was a pittance, barely enough to live on.
- A small amount.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]small allowance of food and drink; a scanty meal
meagre allowance of money or wages
|
a small amount
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Medieval Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
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