Subsidy

How to spell subsidy

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce subsidy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does subsidy mean?

1. nounA sum of money granted by a government or public body to support an industry, service, or activity, often to keep its cost down.

Subsidy in a sentence

• The farmers relied on a government subsidy to cover the bad harvest.

• Without a public subsidy, the rural bus route would close.

Where does subsidy come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin subsidium, which in Roman military life named the reserve troops held back behind the front line, ready to step in when needed. That noun was built from sub, meaning 'under' or 'in reserve', and a root tied to sedere, 'to sit', so the literal idea was of forces sitting in support. Over time subsidium broadened from battlefield backup to any kind of help, support, or financial aid. English took the word in the late fourteenth century, originally for a tax or grant of money voted to the crown, before it settled into the modern sense of money paid by a government to assist an industry or keep prices down. The same 'sit' root sits quietly inside relatives such as 'reside' and 'sediment', and remembering the single 'd' followed by the gentle '-idy' ending helps avoid the common slip of doubling the letter.

How the word is built

• sub- (under)
• sid (from Latin sedere: to sit)
• -y (noun suffix)