subsidiary

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /səbˈsɪd.i.ər.i/, US /səbˈsɪd.i.er.i/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin subsidiārius (“serving to assist or supplement, of a reserve”), perhaps partly through Middle French subsidiaire,^[2][3][4][5] from subsidium (“help, aid, troops in reserve”) (see subsidy).^[2][3][4] The Latin adjective was also used as a noun for the reserve.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Serving to help or supplement, held in reserve: 1543.^[2][6][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The levying of a subsidy is recorded in 1592,^[2] and the noun, a person or thing that supplies help, from 1603, in Florio's Montaigne.^[2][4] Consisting of subsidies is from 1608, and the subsidiary treaty from 1755.^[6] The sense subordinate or secondary is first recorded in Carlyle's Sartor Resartus (1831).^[2][6] Of a stream it meant tributary from 1834.^[6] A subsidiary company is controlled by another.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 1543 – serving to help.^[2][6]
• 1603 – a subsidiary (noun).^[2][4]
• 1755 – subsidiary treaty.^[6]
• 1831 – subordinate, secondary.^[2][6]
• 1834 – of a stream, tributary.^[6]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Serving to assist or supplement; auxiliary.
2. Secondary in importance; subordinate.
3. Of or like a subsidy.

Noun

1. A person or thing that is subsidiary to another.
2. A company controlled by another company.
3. (music) A theme subordinate to the main one.

Word family

• subsidiarily
• subsidiariness
• nonsubsidiary

Related words

• subsidiarity
• subsidy
• subside

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins