Alms are money and food given to the poor. A coin dropped into an outstretched hand.
The word is old and religious, and it belongs to a world in which giving to the poor was a duty owed to God rather than a matter of choice. It survives in almshouses, which are charitable homes built for the poor and still standing in many English towns. It is always plural and takes a plural verb, and the l is silent. Charity and donations are the modern words for the same thing.
1nounalmsMoney or food given to poor people as charity.
“They begged for alms at the church door.”
Alms is mercy worn down. Greek eleēmosynē meant pity or charity, from eleos, mercy, and the word shrank through Latin and Old English ælmesse until only one syllable was left.
Middle English
almesse
English, today
alms
Built from
From Middle English almesse. From Middle English almes, almesse, ælmesse, from Old English ælmesse, from Proto-West Germanic alemōsinā, a borrowing from Vulgar Latin alemosyna, from Latin eleēmosyna, from Ancient Greek ἐλεημοσύνη (“alms”), from ἐλεέω (“to have mercy”), from ἔλεος (“mercy”). Compare stq Aalmoose (“alms”), Dutch aalmoes (“alms”), German Almosen (“alms”), Catalan almoina (“alms”), Portuguese esmola (“alms”), Galician esmola (“alms”), Spanish limosna (“alms”), French aumône (“alms”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA