See Also: subsistence(medicine)
subsistence(dictionary)
subsistence(dictionary)
subsistence diet(medicine)
Subsistence wages(finance)
subsistence farming(encyclopedia)

subsistence (iou)



subsistence noun. LME.
[Late Latin subsistentia, formed as SUBSISTENT: see -ENCE.]
Substantial, real, or independent existence. LME.
Theology. = HYPOSTASIS 1. M16-E18.
A state or mode of existence. L16-L17.
A thing having substantial or real existence. E17.
The condition or quality of inhering or residing in something. E-M17.
Continued existence, continuance. Now rare. E17.
The action or condition of subsisting or of supporting life, the provision of food etc. Now rare exc. in means of subsistence. M17.
S. Smiles Finding the door to promotion or even to subsistence closed against him. Law Times The court will not reduce the defendant to beggary by selling his only means of subsistence. World Archaeology Aborigines there base their subsistence on thirty-eight edible species of plants and forty-seven species of animals.
b. The upkeep or support of an army. M18.
(A) means of supporting life; (a) livelihood. Now spec., a bare or minimal level of existence; an income providing this. M17.
M. Robinson The wages of workers could not exceed subsistence.
b. Food supply, provisions. L17-L18.
c. In full subsistence money. Money allowed for maintenance; spec. an advance paid on wages due. L17.
Comb.: subsistence allowance = subsistence money below; subsistence crop: cultivated primarily for subsistence (opp. cash crop); subsistence diet the minimum amount of food needed to keep a person healthy; subsistence farmer a person engaged in subsistence farming; subsistence farming: serving only to support the farmer's household directly without producing a significant surplus for trade; subsistence level a standard of living providing only the bare necessities of life; subsistence money: see sense 8c above; subsistence stores US stores required to keep an army in food etc.; subsistence wage: providing only a minimal standard of living.