Sunday Rest: eleemosynary. Word Not To Use Today.

I've been aware of this word for most of my life, but it's so utterly horrible that until now I've always pretended it doesn't exist.

I suppose it's the double e that's the very worst bit - horrendously out-of-place in a Latinate word like you-know-what - and even after you've got rid of the nasty double e the word whinges its life away in a whine: mosynary. Hideous! 

The word means begun with, or depending upon, or given as, charity. Of course this only makes things even worse, because charity should be given with a humble heart, and the last thing we should be doing is drawing attention to it with long words. 

Especially hideous ones.



Charity, by Anthony van Dyck.


Sunday Rest: eleemosynary (I actually find it physically painful to type that word). It comes from the church Latin eleēmosyna, which means alms, from the Greek eleēmosynē, compassion, from elios, pity.