pension
[pen-shuh n; French pahn-syawn for 3]
- a fixed amount, other than wages, paid at regular intervals to a person or to the person's surviving dependents in consideration of past services, age, merit, poverty, injury or loss sustained, etc.: a retirement pension.
- an allowance, annuity, or subsidy.
- (in France and elsewhere in continental Europe)
- a boardinghouse or small hotel.
- room and board.
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- to grant or pay a pension to.
- to cause to retire on a pension (usually followed by off).
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Origin of pension
1325–75; Middle English (< Old French pensïon) < Latin pēnsiōn- (stem of pēnsiō) a weighing out, hence, a paying out, installment paying, equivalent to pēns(us) (past participle of pendere to weigh out, pay by weight, equivalent to pend- verb stem + -tus past participle suffix, with dt > s) + -iōn- -ion
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for pension
Contemporary Examples
Young says she ultimately lost her health benefits and pension.
He returned home a pauper without a pension and 50 years later, at 70, chronicled the travails of the War of Independence.
But Raimondo ran a targeted, data-driven campaign that, like the pension reforms, was driven by the facts and not by emotion.
The pension fund, the union declared, had fallen victim to “a Wall Street coup.”
But when Tarkhan got sick with tuberculosis and was ushered out, the government gave him no pension or medical assistance.
Historical Examples
The practical result of the Ode was a pension of 200 a year conferred on him by Queen Anne.
HandelEdward J. Dent
This was the last I had seen of my ticket, and almost the last I had thought of my pension.
Ned MyersJames Fenimore Cooper
I had no thought of this pension, at all, in coming up to town.
Ned MyersJames Fenimore Cooper
Sir William's pension of L1200 a year ceased with his death.
The Life of Horatio Lord NelsonRobert Southey
He's got one eye out; lost it lookin' fer a pension, I believe.
Uncles Josh's Punkin Centre StoriesCal Stewart
pension1
- a regular payment made by the state to people over a certain age to enable them to subsist without having to work
- a regular payment made by an employer to former employees after they retire
- a regular payment made to a retired person as the result of his or her contributions to a personal pension scheme
- any regular payment made on charitable grounds, by way of patronage, or in recognition of merit, service, etca pension paid to a disabled soldier
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- (tr) to grant a pension to
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Word Origin
C14: via Old French from Latin pēnsiō a payment, from pendere to pay
pension2
- a relatively cheap boarding house
- another name for full board
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Word Origin
C17: French; extended meaning of pension grant; see pension 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for pension
n.
mid-14c., "payment for services," especially "reward, payment out of a benefice" (early 14c., in Anglo-Latin), from Old French pension "payment, rent" (13c.) and directly from Latin pensionem (nominative pensio) "a payment, installment, rent," from past participle stem of pendere "pay, weigh" (see pendant). Meaning "regular payment in consideration of past service" first recorded 1520s. Meaning "boarding house, boarding school" first attested 1640s, from French, and usually in reference to places in France or elsewhere on the Continent.
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v.
1640s, "to live in a pension," from pension (n.) or else from French pensionner. Meaning "to grant a pension" is from 1702. Related: Pensioned; pensioning.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
pension
Payments made to a retired person either by the government or by a former employer.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.