Forms: 3–4 sustynance, 3–6 -tinaunce, 4 sust-, sostnaunce, sostinonce, -tenaunse, sustenauns, 4–5 -tiena(u)nce, 4–6 -ten-, -tynaunce, 5 -tinens, -tenence, -tenaunse, 5–6 -tinance, 6 -tynans, -tenens, -teynaunce, -tainance, 7–8 sustinence, 3– sustenance. [a. AF. sustenaunce, OF. sos-, soustenance, mod.F. soutenance (= Pr. sostenensa, It. sostenenza, OPg. sustinencia; cf. late L. sustinentia), f. sostenir to SUSTAIN: see -ANCE.]
1. Means of living or subsistence; livelihood; † phr. to find, win (a) sustenance.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 975. Hii … swonke & tylede hor liflode … Hii founde hom sustenance inou & liuede þus vorþ.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 1326. Ȝyf þou þurgh wykked ordynaunce Fordost pore mannys sustynaunce Þat aftyrward he may nat lyue.
13[?]. Coer de L., 3757. Kyng Richard gaff castels and touns, To hys eerlys and to barouns, To have therinne her sustynaunce.
13[?]. Sir Beues (A.), 3916. Iosian eueriche a day Ȝede aboute þe cite wiþ inne. Here sostenaunse for to winne.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 2041 (Ariadne). And for myn sustenaunce, yet wil I swynk.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), vii. 24. In his deserte I dwell and gase to gete my sustinaunce.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., xviii. (1885), 154. Þe clarkes off is chapell … [shall] be rewarded with pencions … ffor þer rewardes or sustenance.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 350. To haue sufficient for their necessarie sustenance.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 243. There is … all that is necessary for the Service of the Church, and the sorry sustenance of the Religious.
1710. Prideaux, Orig. Tithes, i. 30. They reap from them a sustenance in Earthly things.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, I. 2. It was the fur trade … which gave early sustenance and vitality to the great Canadian provinces.
1864. Tennyson, En. Ard., 258. She … Gain’d for her own a scanty sustenance.
2. Means of sustaining life; food, victuals.
c. 1290. St. Francis, 229, in S. Eng. Leg., 60. Miseyse huy hadden þare i-novȝ … For defaute of heore sustinaunce and for defaute of bokes.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1095. Nauþer of sostnaunce ne of slepe, soþly I knowe.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XX. 7. To clothes and to sustenance.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 83. The cornes and the wynes Ben sustenance to mankinde.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VII. xxvi. 253. Many … merueilled that he desyred his sustenaunce for a twelf monethe.
c. 1491. Chast. Goddes Chyld., 13. It is nedeful to take bodily sustenaunce … in resonable manere.
1549. Latimer, Ploughers (Arb.), 25. If the ploughemen … were … negligente … we shoulde not longe lyue for lacke of sustinaunce.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 360. [The Chameleon] feedeth not onely vpon Aire, (though that be his principall Sustenance;) For sometimes hee taketh Flies.
1691. Ray, Creation, I. (1692), 71. Water is one part, and that not the least of our Sustenance.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), II. 144. Having sold all our moveables … for sustenance.
1808. Scott, in Lockhart, Life, I. i. 47. I had all the appetite of a growing boy, but was prohibited any sustenance beyond what was absolutely necessary for the support of nature.
1864. Tennyson, En. Ard., § 550. No want was there of human sustenance, Soft fruitage, mighty nuts, and nourishing roots.
1873. Browning, Red Cott. Nt.-cap, II. 1103. Now dying and in want of sustenance!
† b. A kind or a quantity of food; pl. eatables.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 254. Pay … toke no hede what þat þay haden but a sympull sustenaunce.
1528. Paynell, Salerne’s Regim., D iij. Nothynge more dangerous than to myngle diuers sustinances to gether.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 89. Fortie saile of ships … by the trading whereof they bring in that sustenance which the soile affordeth not.
1677. in Ray’s Corr. (1848), 128. I am apt to believe that water cannot be a competent sustenance for them.
c. gen. and fig. Nourishment.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xix. 437. They ete all a lityll therof, whiche gauf theim grete sustenaunse.
1577. Googe, trans. Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 18 b. Those [thinges] that require more sustenaunce, are sowen in richer ground.
1671. Milton, P. R., I. 429. Lying is thy sustenance, thy food.
1686. W. Hopkins, trans. Ratramnus, Dissert. v. (1688), 93. This Spiritual virtue [of the Sacrament] … ministering to it the sustenance of Eternal Life.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., V. 466. Some reject this sustenance divine.
1830. Herschel, Study Nat. Phil., 65. That dry bones could be a magazine of nutriment,… ready to yield up their sustenance in the form best adapted to the support of life.
a. 1831. A. Knox, Rem. (1844), I. 66. The taste once revived, its due sustenance would not be difficult to find.
1849. Helps, Friends in C., II. iv. 95. The plants draw most of their sustenance from the air.
3. The action of sustaining life by food; the action of supporting with the means of subsistence; the fact or state of being so sustained.
Tends to merge in sense 2.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 298. Euery tyme that a man eteth or drynketh moore than suffiseth to the sustenaunce of his body.
1389. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 46. Ilke broþer and sistir shal ȝeuen … j.d to his sustenauns and releuyinge.
c. 1400. Brut, I. 11. Brut … done mow medes for sustinaunce of hym & of his peple.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VI. (1533), 101/2. Other viii. houres he spent in his natural reste, sustinaunce of his body, & the nedes of the realme.
1538. Starkey, England (1878), 74. When ther ys of vytayl ouerlytyl for the necessary sustenans and maynteynyng of the same.
1586. B. Young, trans. Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., IV. 224. They take but small refection, a thing most natural for sustainance of life.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 78. That it was so directed purely for my Sustenance on that wild miserable Place.
1842. Combe, Digestion, 249. Only two-thirds of the quantity now ascertained to be requisite for human sustenance.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 117. In Europe large spaces are covered with food-grasses and other plants, for the sustenance of the inhabitants.
1913. Act 3 & 4 Geo. V., c. 20 § 74. Payment … to the bankrupt … of such sum out of the estate as they shall think proper for sustenance.
† 4. Endurance. Obs.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 131. It is to kinde no plesance That man above his sustienance Unto the gold schal serve and bowe.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. IV. 208. Vnsyttynge suffraunce [v.r. sustienance].
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1716, I. 350. The willing susception and the cheerful sustenance of the cross.
† 5. The action of sustaining, supporting or upholding. Obs.
c. 1400. Love, Bonavent. Mirr., xliii. (1908), 238. So hongeth oure lorde onely by thoo two nayles … with outen sustenaunce of the body.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., xiv. (1885), 144. Savynge to hym selff sufficiant for the sustenance off his estate.
1836. J. Gilbert, Chr. Atonem., iv. (1852), 99. Upheld not merely by unreasoning instinct, but by a sustenance of their understandings.
6. Something that sustains, supports or upholds; a means or source of support.
c. 1400. trans. Secr. Secr., Gov. Lordsh., 53. Þe maners and þe goodis sustinancez of vertues er to guerdon olde trauailles, to reles wrongys, [etc.].
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 137 b. Whiche two that is grace & the Sacrament … be all our sustenaunce and supportacyon.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. l. 13. Meate and drinke, which are but sustenances of mans infirmitie.
a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife, etc. (1638), 70. The sustenance of his discourse is Newes.
1871. Smiles, Charac., i. (1876), 6. Simple honesty of purpose … gives him strength and sustenance.
b. Applied to a person.
c. 1400. Beryn, 1176. He toke hir in his armys … And seyd, ‘myne ertly Ioy … my lyvis sustenaunce!’
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour, xcv. The childe that God gaue me … whiche was alle my ioye and sustenaunce.
7. attrib.: sustenance diet = subsistence diet (SUBSISTENCE 11); sustenance money = SUBSISTENCE MONEY 2. (rare.)
1886. C. Scott, Sheep-Farming, 59. The system of carrying on animals to a certain age on merely sustenance diet, before commencing to fatten them.
1905. Edin. Rev., Oct., 468. The so-called pay was, of course, the sustenance-money which was allowed to many émigrés.
Hence Sustenanceless a., devoid of sustenance or food.
1630. R. Johnson’s Kingd. & Commw., 87. You have sauce and no sustenance; and so mich God dich you with your sustenancelesse sauce.
