Viaticum

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /vʌɪˈatɪkəm/

Definitions

1. Money or provisions supplied for an upcoming trip ; the sacrament of communion administered to someone near death
2. Funds or supplies provided to support travel ; the rite of giving the holy Eucharist to a person at the point of death
3. Resources or payment intended to assist a journey ; the religious act of offering communion to a terminally ill individual

Etymology: Latin "viaticum" meant the money or provisions a traveller needed for a journey, and it grew from "viaticus," meaning "of a road," which itself came from "via," the word for road. The same Latin base produced the English "voyage," so the two words are doublets: one arrived through French and one came more directly. "Viaticum" entered English as a learned borrowing, and its surprising later career had little to do with travel. In the Christian church, "viaticum" came to mean the Eucharist given to a dying person as spiritual provision for the final journey, and English adopted that sense. The metaphor of death as a journey made the word a natural fit for this religious use, so a term for the purse and provisions of a traveller came to name the last sacrament.

Synonyms: travel allowance, travel money, provision, stipend, allowance