stipend

Etymology

The noun is derived from Late Middle English stipend, stipende (“salary, wage”) [and other forms], from Old French stipende, stipendie, from Latin stīpendium (“contribution; dues; impost, tax; tribute; military pay or stipend; military service”), from *stipipendium, *stippendium, from stips (“alms; contribution, donation, gift”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steyp- (“erect; stiff”)) + pendere (the present active infinitive of pendō (“to cause to hang down or suspend; to weigh, weigh out; (hence) to pay”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to pull; to spin; to stretch”)) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). The verb is derived from the noun. cognates * Italian stipendio * Portuguese estipendio * Spanish estipendio

noun

1. (archaic) A regular fixed payment made to someone (especially a clergyman, judge, soldier, or teacher) for services provided by them; a salary. [from 15th c.]
2. (by extension)
   1. Some other form of fixed (and generally small) payment occurring at regular intervals, such as an allowance, a pension, or (obsolete) a tax. [from 16th c.]
      My stipend for doing public service is barely enough to cover living expenses.
   2. (education) A scholarship granted to a student. [from 20th c.]
3. (obsolete)
   1. Money which is earned; an income.
   2. A one-off payment for a service provided.

verb

1. (transitive, obsolete or historical) To provide (someone) with a stipend (an allowance, a pension, a salary, etc.). [from 16th c.]
   The recently discovered "Letters of Daniel Defoe," existing in the Record Office, leave no doubt of the Government practice of suborning and stipending newspaper proprietors and writers connected with them was as old as the times of the "Mercurius Politicus," and other contemporaneous newspapers under Defoe's management and influence. 1867, Richard Robert Madden, chapter I, in The History of Irish Periodical Literature, from the End of the 17th to the Middle of the 19th Century,[…], volume I, London: T[homas] C[autley] Newby,[…], →OCLC, page 57
   We have a rival in the Melacvurie, but by stipending the King of Falaba, he would use his great power and influence to make the Sangaras take what will doubtless be called the Governor's road, and by stipending the troublesome Limbas, the Sangaras would no longer be subjected to dangers of robbery, and even murder in that country. 21 December 1869, W[illiam] Winwood Reade, “[Additional Notices.] Report on a Journey to the Upper Waters of the Niger from Sierra Leone.”, in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, volume XIV, number II, London: Royal Geographical Society], published 7 June 1870, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 187
   The involvement of parents within their child's education program is critical and there has to be ways of involving parents in that. […] It may mean stipending them because you have taken away their job that day and you have taken away their income that day in order to come into the schools and be part of the educational process. 21 March 1992, Louise Kleinstiver (witness), “Statement of Louise Kleinstiver, Superintendent, Somerton School District No. 11, Yuma County”, in Hearing on Education Reform and Related Issues: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary, and Vocational Education of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, Second Session […] Serial No. 102–106[…], Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, page 19
   As well as enjoying links in the royal court, he Nicolas Fouquet's grandson] was said to stipend some 200 individuals in the city of Paris to spread favourable news stories about himself. 2002, Colin Jones, “Fleury’s France (1726–43)”, in The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon 1715–99, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, page 122