subsistence
/səbˈsɪstəns/ noun
Forms subsistences subsistance
- noun Real being; existence.
- noun The act of maintaining oneself at a minimum level.
- noun Inherency. “the subsistence of qualities in bodies”
- noun Something (food, water, money, etc.) that is required to stay alive.
- noun (theology) Embodiment or personification or hypostasis of an underlying principle or quality.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English subsistence; partly from Middle French subsistence (modern French subsistance) and partly from its etymon Late Latin subsistentia (“substance, reality, in Medieval Latin also stability”), from Latin subsistēns, present participle of subsistere (“to continue, subsist”). Perhaps also partly from subsist + -ence.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [Cf. F. subsistance, L. subsistentia.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “subsistence”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details