Prebend

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A fixed income or estate granted to a canon or cleric from the endowment of a cathedral or collegiate church
2. The salary or landed revenue assigned to a member of a cathedral chapter from church property
3. Church income set aside for a cathedral canon, drawn from lands or revenues held by the chapter

Etymology: In Latin, "praebere" meant to hold out or furnish, and its verbal adjective "praebenda" was something that had to be supplied. Medieval Latin used the term for the allowance of food, money or lodging that a clergyman received from a church's revenues so he could live while serving it. English kept that sense for the income a cathedral or collegiate canon was paid. The English form looks like "pre-" plus "bend", but the resemblance is coincidental. The word is a doublet of "provender", so the same Latin source reached English twice: once as this clerical stipend, and once as "provender", the food supplied to livestock.

Synonyms: stipend, benefice