Etymologically
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subsidiary

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 17 October 2026 at 15:29. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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
  • 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