mendicancy
Living by alms
Mendicancy is the practice or condition of begging for a living.
The word carries a formal tone, appearing in legal contexts (laws against mendicancy) and discussions of religious orders whose members survive on alms rather than wages.
A mendicant is one who practices mendicancy—either a beggar or a member of such an order, like Franciscan friars.
Soliciting money from strangers
- solicitationSeeking to obtain
- supplicationHumble plea for help
- pleadingUrgent heartfelt request
- cadgingObtaining through begging
scrounging · importunity · petitioning · handout · sponging · bumming · beseeching · entreaty
Extreme poverty, lacking necessities
- indigenceExtreme poverty, total want
- penuryExtreme lack of money
- privationLack of necessities
- wantTo desire something
impoverishment · pauperism · neediness · hardship · hand-to-mouth · vagrancy · homelessness · pennilessness
Gifts to the destitute
- almsgivingGiving to the needy
- donationVoluntary charitable gift
- benefactionCharitable gift or deed
- largesseGenerous gift-giving
handout · dole · relief · aid · patronage · tithe · zakat · dana
Mendicant order member
- FranciscansCatholic mendicant religious order
- DominicansPreaching religious order members
- CarmelitesCatholic mendicant order
- AugustiniansOrder following Augustine's rule
panhandling
Soliciting money from strangers
- solicitationSeeking to obtain
- supplicationHumble plea for help
- pleadingUrgent heartfelt request
cadging · scrounging · importunity · petitioning · handout · sponging · bumming · beseeching · entreaty
destitution
Extreme poverty, lacking necessities
want · impoverishment · pauperism · neediness · hardship · hand-to-mouth · vagrancy · homelessness · pennilessness · beggary
alms
Gifts to the destitute
- almsgivingGiving to the needy
- donationVoluntary charitable gift
- benefactionCharitable gift or deed
largesse · handout · dole · relief · aid · patronage · tithe · zakat · dana · oblation
friar
Mendicant order member
- FranciscansCatholic mendicant religious order
- DominicansPreaching religious order members
- CarmelitesCatholic mendicant order
- asceticismabstinence, celibacy, ascetic, austerities, chastity
- Friarsfriar, friars, Franciscan, Franciscans, friary
- vagrancyloitering, panhandling, begging, homelessness, itinerancy
- povertypoverty line, poor, poverty rate, impoverished, generational poverty
mendicancywealth
Abundance of valuable resources
affluence · prosperity · riches · opulence · richness
mendicancyself-sufficiency
Independence from outside aid
self-reliance · independence · self-support · working for a living · industry
mendicancyphilanthropy
Generous giving for others
benefaction · patronage · almsgiving · charity · munificence