Also 7 appannage, -onage, apennage, 7–8 appennage, -enage. [a. Fr. apanage (appanage, appennage), f. apaner to endow with the means of subsistence, Pr. apanar:—L. *appanāre, adpanāre (common in med.L.), f. ad to + pan-is bread: see -AGE. The Fr. was often spelt appanage in 15–16th c., and regularly appennage in 17th (Cotgr.); whence also the same forms in Eng., where appanage is still equally common with apanage.]
1. The provision made for the maintenance of the younger children of kings, princes, etc.; it was originally a province, jurisdiction, or lucrative office, but the grant has also been made in money. In apanage: in possession as an apanage.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 77 a. Belinus … had for his appannage (as the French terme it) Lœgria, Wales and Cornwall.
1605. Camden, Rem., 91. Valoys was but the Apponage … of Charles yonger sonne to Philip the second.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., IV. 18. Monsieur hath for his apennage 100000 Liures.
1728. Morgan, Hist. Algiers, II. i. 217. Abdalaziz … had the State of Bujeya … left him in appennage.
1847. Disraeli, Tancred, II. iv. (1871), 70. Bishoprics … as appanages for the younger sons of great families.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. vi. 452. His son received, as usual, the apanage of Cumberland.
2. loosely, A specially appropriated possession; a perquisite.
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, II. iv. 134. Its revenues and its empire will become the appanage of the hardy soldier.
1862. Lond. Rev., 26 July, 71/1. The diplomatic service … must always remain the apanage of the wealthy.
3. A territory or property in the dependent condition of an apanage in sense 1; a dependency.
1807. Syd. Smith, Plymley’s Lett., Wks. 1859, II. 166/2. Ireland … the most valuable appanage of our empire.
1872. Yeats, Growth Comm., 187. The period when a ‘New World’ was the appanage of a European peninsula.
4. transf. A specially appointed, and hence, a natural or necessary, adjunct, accompaniment, endowment or attribute.
1663. Sir G. Mackenzie, Relig. Stoic, V. (1685), 36. One of the necessary Appanages of God’s Omnipotency.
1731. Swift, To Gay, Wks. 1775, IV. I. 168. Had he thought it fit, That wealth should be the appennage of wit.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, IV. viii. 146. Respect is not the appanage of such as I am.
1875. Swinburne, Ess. & Stud., 249. This fretful and petulant appetite for applause, the proper apanage of small poets.
