mendicity

American  

[men-dis-i-tee] / mɛnˈdɪs ɪ ti /

noun

1. mendicancy.

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Etymology

Origin of mendicity

1350–1400; Middle English mendicite < Latin mendīcitās beggary, equivalent to mendīc ( us ) needy, beggarly + -itās -ity

Example Sentences

For Alexander it was just another day in the 1995 campaign, a marathon of mendicity that will do much to determine which G.O.P. hopefuls will survive to compete in the 1996 campaign.

From Time Magazine Archive

It should be further remarked that there are a number of begging castes, in which all work is proscribed and mendicity exalted into a divinely ordained profession!

From India, Its Life and Thought by Jones, John P. (John Peter)

There was an enormous amount of vagrancy and mendicity, as there was in Scotland before the union.

From Irish History and the Irish Question by Smith, Goldwin

English travellers are given to commenting on the mendicity in foreign cities, but I must confess that nowhere have I met with so many beggars as in our own capital.

From Southern Spain by Calvert, A. F. (Albert Frederick)

This is the very thing," said the old merchant, "which in all countries maintains mendicity, that we cannot and will not rid ourselves of this petty feeling of soft-hearted vanity and mawkish philanthropy.

From The Pictures; The Betrothing Novels by Thirlwall, Connop