“eleemosynary, a. and n.†listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
Full definition of eleëmosynary
Adjective
eleëmosynary
1853, Oxford University Commission, The North American Review, April 1853, page 384University Professorships are founded in connection with these eleëmosynary halls.
1856, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Outre-mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea, page 58:He was led about by a brisk, middle-aged woman, in straw hat and wooden shoes; and a little barefooted boy, with clear, blue eyes and flaxen hair, held a tattered hat in his hand, in which he collected eleëmosynary sous.
1900, Eustace Alfred Reynolds-Ball, Paris in Its Splendor, page 41:The following statistics, for which I am indebted to that encyclopædic storehouse of practical information, Baedeker’s “Parisâ€, will give the reader some idea of the importance of the eleëmosynary work undertaken by the sub-committee (Assistance Publique) of the council entrusted with the administration of the Paris hospitals: “The twenty hospitals of Paris have an aggregate of upwards of twelve thousand beds. The number of patients annually discharged includes forty-five to fifty thousand men, thirty-six to forty thousand women, and sixteen to eighteen thousand children; the average annual deaths in the hospitals include about seven ...
