Generosity

How to spell generosity

10 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce generosity

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does generosity mean?

1. nounThe quality of being kind, giving, or willing to share freely.

Generosity in a sentence

• The charity thanked donors for their remarkable generosity.

• His generosity extended to covering the whole team's lunch.

Where does generosity come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin generositas, meaning 'nobility of birth' or 'excellence of kind', built on generosus, which literally meant 'of noble birth' or 'high-born'. That root traces back to genus, the Latin word for 'birth', 'race', or 'kind', the same source that gives us 'gene', 'genus', and 'generation'. English borrowed it through Old French in the 1500s, when it still carried the sense of aristocratic high-mindedness rather than open-handed giving. Over the following century the meaning drifted from 'noble character' to the freehearted liberality we mean today, since giving freely was thought a mark of nobility. The shift from -ous in 'generous' to -osity in the noun is what trips writers up, along with the unstressed middle vowels that all soften to a schwa.

How the word is built

• gener- (from genus: birth, kind, race)
• -os- (full of)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix denoting quality)