Pensionary

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A beneficiary of a financial arrangement that provides regular payments to individuals typically after their retirement due to prior employment
2. Someone who receives fixed periodic payments after ending work typically to support their living expenses in old age
3. An individual granted ongoing financial support following their departure from active employment usually as a form of retirement income

Etymology: "Pensionary" is simply "pension" with the suffix "-ary" added, and the suffix is the part worth a closer look. "-ary" comes from Latin "-arius", which marked a person connected with or charged with something, so the word names someone who is a recipient of a pension. Historically, a pensionary was also a person who was paid a pension to serve a particular interest, a sense the modern meaning has largely left behind. The root "pension" arrived in English from French, ultimately from Latin "pensio", meaning a payment, from "pendere", to weigh or pay out. That original sense of weighing out money is still visible in the word's family, which includes "pendant" and "expend."

Synonyms: retiree, pensioner, annuitant, beneficiary, recipient

Antonyms: employer, worker, employee, contributor, earner