Sunday, December 30, 2007

Word of the Day

mendicant \MEN-dih-kunt\, noun:

1. A beggar; especially, one who makes a business of begging.
2. A member of an order of friars forbidden to acquire landed property and required to be supported by alms.
3. Practicing beggary; begging; living on alms; as, mendicant friars.

Money has ever posed problems. Not even love, said Gladstone, has made so many fools of men. Throughout time the most obvious but universal dilemma -- that there is never enough of it -- has confounded everyone, from mendicants to monarchs, and their ministers.
-- Janet Gleeson, Millionaire
She was well dressed, obviously not a mendicant.
-- William Safire, Scandalmonger

Mendicant derives from Latin mendicare, "to beg," from mendicus, "beggar."

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