maintenance
/ˈmeɪnt(ə)nəns/ noun
Forms maintenances
- noun Actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service.
- noun (law) A tort and (in some jurisdictions) an offence committed when a third party who does not have a bona fide interest in a lawsuit provides help or acquires an interest to a litigant's lawsuit.
- noun (law, UK) Alimony, a periodical payment or a lump sum made or ordered to be made to a spouse after a divorce.
- noun (law) Child support.
- noun Money required or spent to provide for the needs of a person or a family.
- noun (biology) The natural process which keeps an organism alive.
- noun (software engineering, attributive) Software updates that fix bugs and improve stability rather than adding new features. “a maintenance release; a maintenance version”
Synonyms
care upkeep alimony sustenance sustentation sustainment criminal maintenance
Etymology
From Middle English mayntenaunce, from Old French maintenance, from maintenir, from Latin manus tenēre (“to hold in the hand”). By surface analysis, maintain + -ance.
Note that maintain has undergone a sound and spelling change, hence is spelt with -tain-, rather than the -ten- still found in maintenance.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The act of maintaining; sustenance; support; defense; vindication.
- noun That which maintains or supports; means of sustenance; supply of necessaries and conveniences.
Etymology [OF. maintenance. See Maintain.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “maintenance”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details