pittance
Other forms: pittances
A pittance is a tiny payment or small reimbursement for work — generally an amount that's inadequate. The restaurant may pay you a pittance, but you can do well if you get a lot of good tips.
The word pittance came into English from the Old French word pitance, meaning “allowance of food to a monk or poor person,” which in turn came from the Latin word pietas, meaning “pity.” Although a pittance may have originally meant that you were taking pity on someone with less wealth by giving them money or food, these days when you get a pittance it means that you earn a pitiful wage.
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an inadequate payment“they work all day for a mere pittance”type of:paymenta sum of money paid or a claim discharged
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Vocabulary lists containing pittance
In this groundbreaking novel, Dr. Victor Frankenstein works feverishly to bring an inanimate creature to life — but when he finally succeeds, he is horrified by what he has unleashed.
In this unflinching memoir, Elie Wiesel describes his experience as a young man imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. 2006 Hill and Wang edition.
Published in 1906, this novel helped expose the oppressive and unsafe labor conditions in Chicago's meatpacking industry.