Edit page | Page history | Printable version

pension

1. A payment; a tribute; something paid or given. The stomach's pension, and the time's expense. (Sylvester)

2. A stated allowance to a person in consideration of past services; payment made to one retired from service, on account of age, disability, or other cause; especially, a regular stipend paid by a government to retired public officers, disabled soldiers, the families of soldiers killed in service, or to meritorious authors, or the like. To all that kept the city pensions and wages. (1 Esd. Iv. 56)

3. A certain sum of money paid to a clergyman in lieu of tithes.

4. [F, pronounced] A boarding house or boarding school in France, Belgium, Switzerland, etc.

Origin: F, fr. L. Pensio a paying, payment, fr. Pendere, pensum, to weight, to pay; akin to pendre to hang. See Pendant, and cf. Spend.