subsidy
Pluralsubsidies
- 1Financial support or assistance given to a person, business, or activity, often in the form of a grant.
The government introduced a fuel subsidy to ease the burden on low-income households.
Public transportation in many cities depends heavily on subsidies.
Oppositetax
Note
Behind the word is Latin subsidium, "support, assistance", built from sub- "below" and sīdō "sit": help that sits underneath something and holds it up. It works as both a count and a mass noun. Government subsidies are separate payments or schemes, while "this level of government subsidy" treats the support as a single quantity. Government is its most natural companion in either use.
- 2Money granted by Parliament to the British Crown, especially as a tax authorized to fund the monarch's needs.
In 1534, Parliament granted the Crown a subsidy to replenish the depleted treasury.
The monarch's repeated demands for subsidies strained relations with Parliament.
Similargrant
Note
A dated term from the history of English public finance. Here the money flows upward, voted by Parliament to the monarch, typically as a tax on the assessed value of lands and goods to pay for war or royal spending. It belongs in historical writing. In a modern context, readers will take the word in the everyday sense of financial support.
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Origin
It comes through Middle English subsidie and Old French subside from Latin subsidium ("support, assistance"), which was built from sub- ("below") plus sīdō ("sit").