sinecure

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsaɪ.nɪˌkjʊə/, /ˈsɪn.ɪˌkjʊə/ (UK); /ˈsaɪ.nəˌkjʊɹ/, /ˈsɪn.əˌkjʊɹ/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

From Medieval Latin beneficium sine cūrā (“benefice without care (of souls)”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin sine (“without”) + cūrā, ablative singular of Latin cūra (“care”).^[2][3][4] Compare cure and sans.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A church benefice that brings an income but no cure of souls, that is, no parish duties.^[7][3][4][6] The OED, Merriam-Webster and Barnhart date it to 1662, Etymonline to the 1660s and Random House to 1655–65.^{[7][6][3][4][5]}

Semantic evolution

By 1676 the word had been extended to any office or position with no real work attached, especially one that pays.^[7][3] It was also used for the income from such a benefice (1700),^[7] and attributively or as an adjective for something involving no duties (1761).^[7]

Timeline

• 1662 – a benefice without cure of souls.^[7][6][3]
• 1676 – any paid office with little or no work.^[7][3]
• 1700 – the income from a sinecure benefice.^[7]
• 1761 – attributive, “involving no duties”.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A position or office that requires little or no work but provides an income.
2. A church benefice without parish duties. Merriam-Webster labels this sense archaic.

Word family

• sinecurism
• sinecurist
• sinecureship

Related words

• curate
• cure
• sans

References

1. [1] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. [1] [2] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
6. [1] [2] [3] [4] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press