trencherman

Pronounced: TREN-chur-man, noun

Notes: I ran across this word in some reading, but I don’t think it’s very well known

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Yesterday’s word

The word eleemosynary means “of, relating to, or supported by charity”

First usage

The word came into English in the early 1600s

Background / Comments

This is a fancy word for “charitable” (which is much easier to spell). Our word comes from the Latin word eleemosyna. In early England, the word was shortened to œlmes, which was used for “charity”. This became the word “alms”, which refers to food or money given to the poor. The full word came into English as noted above.