Charities

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈt͡ʃɛɹətiz/

Definitions

1. Nonprofit organizations that offer assistance to those in need through various programs and resources
2. Entities established to support people by distributing help and resources for various causes
3. Groups formed to generate and allocate funds and services aimed at improving others’ well-being

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "charities" is how far its core sense has travelled from the Latin it came from. The Latin "cāritās" meant dear or costly, related to "cārus", and it was used for affection and esteem before it came to mean love in the sense of goodwill toward others. English took the word through Old French "charité" and Middle English "charite", and by then it carried the Christian sense of selfless love for one's neighbour, which is why the Tyndale Bible rendered it with the native English "love" instead. The modern sense of giving material help to the needy is a later narrowing. Charity came to mean almsgiving and relief, and organisations set up to distribute that relief took the name, so the plural "charities" refers to these bodies rather than to acts of kindness themselves. The plural is simply the regular form of "charity", which the source traces back to Latin roots shared with "cārus".

Synonyms: philanthropies, donations, aid, contributions, benefactions

Antonyms: selfishness, greed, avarice, stinginess, indifference