subsistence

Etymology

From Late Latin subsistentia (“substance, reality, in Medieval Latin also stability”), from Latin subsistens, present participle of subsistere (“to continue, subsist”). See subsist.

noun

1. Real being; existence.
   the human nature loseth its proper subsistence , and is assumed into the subsistence of the divine nature 1686, Edward Stillingfleet, the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome
2. The act of maintaining oneself at a minimum level.
3. Inherency.
   the subsistence of qualities in bodies
4. Something (food, water, money, etc.) that is required to stay alive.
   In the general course of human nature, a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will. 1788, Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist, Dawson, Federalist 79, page 548
   His viceroy could only propose to himself a comfortable subsistence out of the plunder of his province.
5. (theology) Embodiment or personification or hypostasis of an underlying principle or quality.