subsistence

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   minimal (or marginal) resources for subsisting

   social security provided only a bare subsistence

2. 2
   noun

   a means of surviving

   farming is a hard means of subsistence

3. 3
   noun

   Real being; existence.

   the human nature loseth its proper subsistence , and is assumed into the subsistence of the divine nature

4. 4
   noun

   Inherency.

   the subsistence of qualities in bodies

5. 5
   noun

   Something (food, water, money, etc.) that is required to stay alive.

   In the general course of human nature, a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will.

6. 6
   noun

   the state of existing in reality

7. 7
   noun

   The act of maintaining oneself at a minimum level.

8. 8
   noun

   Embodiment or personification or hypostasis of an underlying principle or quality.

Etymology

From Middle English subsistence; partly from Middle French subsistence (modern French subsistance) and partly from its etymon Late Latin subsistentia (“substance, reality, in Medieval Latin also stability”), from Latin subsistēns, present participle of subsistere (“to continue, subsist”). Perhaps also partly from subsist + -ence.