Other forms: livelihoods
A livelihood is the work by which somebody earns a living. Earn a livelihood, lose their livelihood, threaten livelihoods.
It is a heavier word than job, because it names the whole means of support rather than the post: losing a livelihood means losing the way you feed a family, which is why the word turns up whenever an industry closes. It applies to whole communities. Note that the word was originally lifelode, meaning the course of a life, and was reshaped by association with lively, which is a pure accident.
1nounlivelihoodThe work by which somebody earns a living.
“Fishing has been the village's main livelihood for centuries.”
livelihood is a means of support.
Old English liflad meant the course of a life — lif plus lad, a way or course, the same lad as in lodestar. It was reshaped to look like lively plus -hood, and the original meaning was lost on the way.
Old English
līflād — course of life, conduct
Middle English
liflode
English, today
livelihood
From Middle English liflode, from Old English līflād (“course of life, conduct”), from līf + lād, later altered under the influence of lively, -hood. Compare life, lode.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA