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sinecure

[sahy-ni-kyoor, sin-i-]

Example Sentences Origin

noun

an office or position requiring little or no work, especially one yielding profitable returns.

an ecclesiastical benefice without cure of souls.

Origin:
1655–65; < Medieval Latin (beneficium) sine cūrā (benefice) without care; see cure

Related forms

si·ne·cure·ship, noun

si·ne·cur·ism, noun

si·ne·cur·ist, noun

Can be confused: cynosure, sinecure.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Sinecure is a TOEFL word you need to know.

So is ignore. Does it mean:

large in quantity

to refrain from noticing or recognizing

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Example Sentences

He wrote scholarly papers, jousted in the departmental lists, aspired to the sinecure of tenure.

Many of the comments put forward interesting ideas about how to provide security without creating a sinecure.

The message boards erupted in panic, some of it from veteran players who didn't want to lose their sinecure.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

sinecure (ˈsaɪnɪˌkjʊə)

—n
1.	a paid office or post involving minimal duties
2.	a Church benefice to which no spiritual or pastoral charge is attached

[C17: from Medieval Latin phrase (beneficium) sine cūrā (benefice) without cure (of souls), from Latin sine without + cūra cure, care]

'sinecurism

—n

'sinecurist

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

sinecure

1662, "church benefice without parish duties," from M.L. beneficium sine cura "benefice without care" (of souls), from L. sine "without" + cura, ablative sing. of cura "care" (see cure).

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"For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snow-storms and rain-storms, and did my duty faithfully; surveyor, if not of highways, then of forest paths and all across-lot routes, keeping them open, and ravines bridged and passable at all seasons, where the public heel had testified to their utility.
I have looked after the wild stock of the town,... and I have had an eye to the unfrequented nooks and corners of the farm.... I have watered the red huckleberry, the sand cherry and the nettle-tree, the red pine and the black ash, the white grape and the yellow violet, which might have withered else in dry seasons.
In short, I went on thus for a long time (I may say it without boasting), faithfully minding my business, till it became more and more evident that my townsmen would not after all admit me into the list of town officers, nor make my place a sinecure with a moderate allowance. My accounts, which I can swear to have kept faithfully, I have, indeed, never got audited, still less accepted, still less paid and settled. However, I have not set my heart on that."

-Henry David Thoreau

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