Subsidiary

How to spell subsidiary

10 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce subsidiary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does subsidiary mean?

1. nounA company that is controlled by another, larger parent company.
2. adjectiveLess important than something else; serving in a supporting or secondary role.

Subsidiary in a sentence

• noun

  The bank operates a subsidiary in three other countries.

• adjective

  The report covered the main issue and several subsidiary points.

• noun

  Profits from the subsidiary are reported in the group accounts.

• adjective

  Safety remained the priority, with cost a subsidiary concern.

Where does subsidiary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin subsidiarius, meaning 'serving to help' or 'forming a reserve'. That adjective grew out of the noun subsidium, which in Roman military life described the reserve troops held back behind the front line, ready to give support; it was built from sub- meaning 'under' or 'in reserve' and sedere meaning 'to sit', so the literal idea was soldiers 'sitting behind' to back up the main force. English adopted the word in the late 1500s, first in the broad sense of something that gives aid or support, and only later in the modern business sense of a company owned and controlled by a larger one. The same sedere root sits inside relatives such as 'reside', 'sediment' and even 'subsidy', and the buried 'sid' from that root is exactly the stretch writers stumble over. Remember the single 's' in the middle and the -iary ending, since the unstressed vowels there give no reliable clue to the spelling.

How the word is built

• sub- (under)
• sid (from Latin sedere, to sit)
• -iary (adjective/noun suffix)