Aid
Pronunciation
- RP
- IPA: /eɪd/
- Rhymes: -eɪd
- Homophones: aide
Origin 1
From Old French aide, from Latin adiuvÅ ("to assist, help"). Cognate include Spanish ayuda, Portuguese ajuda and Italian aiuto
Full definition of aid
Noun
aid
(plural aids)- Help; assistance; succor, relief.He came to my aid when I was foundering.
- HallamAn unconstitutional mode of obtaining aid.
- 1910, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price Chapter 1, “… it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.â€
- The person who promotes or helps in something being done; a helper; an assistant.
- Tobit viii. 6It is not good that man should be alone; let us make unto him an aid like unto himself.
- Something which helps; a material source of help.The incompetent general's brilliant aid often made priceless suggestions.
- 2013, Henry Petroski, The Evolution of Eyeglasses, The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone,.... Scribes, illuminators, and scholars held such stones directly over manuscript pages as an aid in seeing what was being written, drawn, or read.
- (British) An historical subsidy granted to the crown by Parliament for an extraordinary purpose, such as a war effort.
- (British) An exchequer loan.
- (legal) A pecuniary tribute paid by a vassal to his feudal lord on special occasions.
- An aide-de-camp, so called by abbreviation.
Derived terms
Origin 2
From Old French aidier (modern aider), from Latin adiuto, frequentative of adiuvo "to assist".
Verb
- (transitive) To (give) support (to); to further the progress of; to help; to assist.
- ShakespeareYou speedy helpers ... Appear and aid me in this enterprise.
- 2012, May 24, Nathan Rabin, Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3, Smith is aided in his quest by an elfin, time-jumping alien with psychic powers played by another Coen brothers veteran, A Serious Man star Michael Stuhlbarg.