munificence

• IPA^(key): /mjuːˈnɪfɪsəns/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

From Middle French munificence, from Latin munificentia, from munus (“gift”) + facio (“I make”).

munificence (usually uncountable, plural munificences)

1. The quality of being munificent; generosity.
   • 1845, Lydia Sigourney, Scenes in my Native Land, The Great Oak of Geneseo, pages 86-87:

     And surely, no form of munificence should entitle to a more grateful and lasting remembrance, than that which promotes the right education of youth;...

Compare Latin munire (“to fortify”).

munificence

1. (obsolete) Means of defence; fortification.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:

     Untill that Locrine for his Realmes defence,
     Did head against them make and strong munificence

From Latin munificentia (“generosity”), from munus (“gift”).

IPA^(key): /my.ni.fi.sɑ̃s/

• Audio

  (file)

munificence f (plural munificences)

1. generosity, frankness, munificence

   1844, Honoré de Balzac, Modeste Mignon:

   Ce naïf soldat, [...] se crut l’homme le plus heureux du monde, en se voyant propriétaire d’une maison que la munificence de son chef garnit d’un joli mobilier [...]

   (please add an English translation of this quote)

• “munificence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.