subsidy

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English subsidie,^[2][3][4] partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman subsidie, recorded in Anglo-Norman from 1354 or earlier, a variant with a changed suffix of subside (“help, assistance; tax, pecuniary aid”),^[5][6][7] and partly directly borrowed from Latin subsidium (“reserve troops, reinforcements; help, support”).^[5][4] The Old French noun subside is recorded from 1236, and earlier as succide (1220).^[5] The Latin word is formed from sub- (“under, behind”) and sedeō (“to sit”) with the suffix -ium,^[5][3][2] and is connected with subsīdō (“to settle down, stay, remain”), the source of subside;^[8][4][9] Hoad calls the link formal only.^[7] The root is Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”).^[2] The Latin noun also gave Catalan subsidi, Spanish subsidio, Portuguese subsídio and Italian sussidio, and later Dutch subsidie and German Subsidien.^[5][10] It is related to sit and session.^[2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Help, aid, assistance: before 1387, in John Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon, a sense obsolete by 1830.^[5][12][8]

Semantic evolution

The word came with a fiscal sense already present in its sources: in Anglo-Norman subside was also a tax levied for the king,^[13][5] and in medieval Latin written in Britain subsidium meant a feudal aid and an aid granted to the sovereign.^[5] Barnhart notes that the general sense of a grant of money, first recorded in 1421, was then often used of money raised by special taxes and given by parliament to the sovereign.^[12] The OED records a tax on imports and exports granted to the sovereign from 1422, and an aid levied for a particular purpose, especially defence, from about 1425.^[5] A donation of money in general appears in 1447, in Osbern Bokenham,^[5] and Johnson (1755) defined the word as aid, "commonly such as is given in money".^[14] From 1652 it was also money paid by one country to another to help in a war or to stay neutral, a sense French had only from 1694.^[5] The modern sense, state money to keep prices down or to support something in the public interest, is recorded from 1832;^[5] Etymonline dates "direct pecuniary aid to private industry" to 1867.^[8] A figurative use, something exacted as if by tribute, goes back to Donne.^[5] The verb subsidy (1656) was replaced by subsidize, recorded from 1795.^[5][12]

Timeline

• before 1387 – help, aid, assistance (obsolete by 1830).^[5][12]
• 1421 – a grant or contribution of money.^[12]
• 1422 – a tax granted by parliament to the sovereign.^[5]
• 1447 – a donation of money or property.^[5]
• 1652 – money paid by one country to another to assist in war.^[5]
• 1656 – verb, to subsidize.^[5]
• 1795 – subsidize.^[12]
• 1832 – state money to keep down prices or support something in the public interest.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Money given by a government or public body to support an industry, keep down the price of a product or service, or help something held to be in the public interest: Fuel subsidies kept bus fares low.^[15][5][4]
2. Any grant or contribution of money made as aid.^[15][4][5]
3. Money paid by one state to another, as to support a war or secure its neutrality.^[5]
4. (historical) In England, a grant made by Parliament to the Crown for a special purpose, raised by a tax.^[15][4][5]
5. (archaic) Help, aid or support.^[4][6][5]

Word family

• antisubsidy
• nonsubsidy

Related words

• subside
• subsidiary
• subsidize
• subsidise
• sit
• session
• subvention

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes subsidy from subvention: both are grants of money, usually from a government, to private undertakings, but a subsidy usually promotes a commercial enterprise, while a subvention more often supports work in science or the arts.^[3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins