Word of the Day Archive
Monday June 7, 2004
mendicant \MEN-dih-kunt\ , noun:
1. A beggar; especially, one who makes a business of begging.
2. A member of an order of friars forbidden to acquire landed property and required to be supported by alms.
adjective:
1. Practicing beggary; begging; living on alms; as, mendicant friars.
Money has ever posed problems. Not even love, said Gladstone, has made so many fools of men. Throughout time the most obvious but universal dilemma -- that there is never enough of it -- has confounded everyone, from mendicants to monarchs, and their ministers.
-- Janet Gleeson, Millionaire
She was well dressed, obviously not a mendicant.
-- William Safire, Scandalmonger
Mendicant derives from Latin mendicare, "to beg," from mendicus, "beggar."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for mendicant
