# What's the word for... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 14, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580 "2003-09-14T16:22:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/1 "2003-09-14T16:22:56Z")
an allowance for life, especially an inheritence, that permits members of wealthy or upper class families to be “gentleman bums”? _Stipend_ is the closest synonym I can think of, but I’m sure there’s some other term I heard once. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/2 "2003-09-14T16:30:13Z")
Annuity? ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/3 "2003-09-14T16:34:17Z")
While this doesn’t imply periodic payments it will work well with “annuity” or “stipend:” Trust Fund ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/4 "2003-09-14T17:10:52Z")
I think you’re looking for “remittance men”. ---
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/5 "2003-09-14T17:52:30Z")
Annuity seems to fit. American Heritage dictionary defines it as: an·nu·i·ty n., pl. an·nu·i·ties. Abbr. ann. 1.a. The annual payment of an allowance or income. b. The right to receive this payment or the obligation to make this payment. 2. An investment on which one receives fixed payments for a lifetime or for a specified number of years. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/6 "2003-09-14T19:58:12Z")
Another word that appears in these contexts is the _verb_ **to settle**. When the annuity is parceled out, it is spoken of as being “settled upon” the recipient. ( **Settlement** , however, is–in my experience–not normally used to indicate what was settled, the indirect object of **to settle** usually remaining annuity or trust or stipend.) ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/7 "2003-09-14T21:01:43Z")
“Remmitance Man”, as sugested above, may be your best bet. It is said that there was a time when the family wastrel would go off to Tasmania or Saskatchewan or somesuch place and live on an allowance, referred to as his “remittance”, for the rest of his life rather than hang around the estate and embarass everyone with his farting and belching. This discussion takes me back. When I was a boy I lived at one end of a very long block. Off at the other end there was a mysterious figure who lived alone in a very large and well-maintained house. He had an obsessive interest in yard work, picking up stray leaves by hand daily, and had an odd habit of leaving all of the lights in his house on over night. Otherwise he was sort of the local “Boo Radley”; never speaking and staring with sullen intensity at anyone who drove by. My dad always called him “the remittance man”. Then we found out that he had been a stockbroker of some prominence who had undergone some manner of breakdown. His family was very well-to-do, and they had set him up there and they supported him via a monthly allowance. It turned out he really _was_ a remittance man. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/8 "2003-09-14T21:44:07Z")
The problem with Remmitance Man is that it refers to the person and not the payment which is what I think the OP was looking for. Another word for the modern day man of leisure, but for the bohemian kind, is “Trustifarian.” ---
**Author:** ![BrianS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c6cbf5/32.png) [@BrianS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrianS)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/9 "2003-09-14T21:55:32Z")
You’re thinking of a “Trust Fund.” ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/10 "2003-09-14T22:50:15Z")
A sincure, perhaps? (Webster’s, Definition 2: Any office or position that brings advantage but involves little or no work). Not that this means exactly what you said, but it might have been the word you heard. ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/11 "2003-09-14T23:49:04Z")
Nitpick: it’s spelled _sinecure_. I’d still go with “remittance”. While the word broadly means a payment sent from a distance, it has taken on the connotation the OP discusses from its association with “remittance men”. ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/12 "2003-09-14T23:55:11Z")
Another thought: possibly you are thinking of a “spendthrift trust”? This is money set aside, generally for the benefit of a wealthy person, to which he only has monitored, controlled access. In theory the arrangement is for the benefit of irresponsible people who cannot be trusted to show restraint and save for a rainy day. In practice it is a method for families to control the conduct of members who spend their money in ways they do not approve. Spendthrift trusts have a certain notoriety in that funds within them are not treated as the benificiary’s property should he go bankrupt; he can have his debts discharged and still have the spendthrift trust intact, paying money out to him periodically, with no way for his debtors to access it. As Montaigne said, everybody is equal in the eyes of the law; it’s just as illegal for a rich man to sleep under a bridge as it is for a poor one. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_In\_Anger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ab097/32.png) [@Not\_In\_Anger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_In_Anger)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/13 "2003-09-15T00:01:48Z")
Oh, come on. “Remittance Man” is the guy, “remittance” is the adverb that is the noun that is the answer to the question that guy was asking. lol ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/14 "2003-09-15T14:24:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Not In Anger \* > \*\*Oh, come on. “Remittance Man” is the guy, “remittance” is the adverb that is the noun that is the answer to the question that guy was asking. > > lol \*\* I’m not sure if I agree. When you divorce the word “remittance” from the figure of speech it loses some of it’s applicability. It worked with the original because the payments were made from overseas - there are more accurate terms for payments from trusts. ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/15 "2003-09-15T15:50:03Z")
A “private income” fits the description: it is an income gained from something other than work: from bonds, rents, trust funds, other investments, etc. ([Wordreference.com](http://www.wordreference.com/english/definition.asp?en=private+income)). ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/16 "2003-09-15T20:47:43Z")
[http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=remittance](http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=remittance) If you are looking for a specific word you just can’t remember, it might be in here. Although the dictionaries I checked indicated a ‘stipend’ was earned income, that and ‘annuity’ may be what you are looking for. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/201580/17 "2003-09-15T20:54:25Z")
‘pension’, I think that’s the word that was used in connection with remittance men. Which novels would the term come up in? One of Dickens’s or Collins’s?