Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A source of revenue, such as land, given by a sovereign for the maintenance of a member of the ruling family.
  • noun Something extra offered to or claimed by a party as due; a perquisite.
  • noun A rightful or customary accompaniment or adjunct.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Originally, in the feudal law of France, that which was granted to the sons of the sovereign for their support, as lands and privileges, and which reverted to the crown on the failure of male heirs.
  • noun Whatever belongs or falls to one from one's rank or station in life.
  • noun A natural or necessary accompaniment; an endowment or attribute.
  • noun A dependent territory; a detached part of the dominions of a crown or government: as, India is now only an appanage of Great Britain.
  • noun Also written apanage, and sometimes appenage.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The portion of land assigned by a sovereign prince for the subsistence of his younger sons.
  • noun A dependency; a dependent territory.
  • noun That which belongs to one by custom or right; a natural adjunct or accompaniment.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A grant (especially by a sovereign) of land (or other source of revenue) as a birthright
  • noun A perquisite that is appropriate to one's position

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a grant (by a sovereign or a legislative body) of resources to maintain a dependent member of a ruling family
  • noun any customary and rightful perquisite appropriate to your station in life

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French apanage, from Old French, from apaner, to make provisions for, possibly from Medieval Latin appānāre : Latin ad-, ad- + Latin pānis, bread; see pā- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French apanage, from Latin *appanare, adpanare ‘to give bread’.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word appanage.

Examples

  • By such men as Tom Pargeter and their like, the possibility of material misfortune attacking themselves and those who form what may be called their appanage, is never envisaged; and therefore, when such misfortune comes to them, as it does sooner or later to all human beings, the grim guest's presence is never accepted without an amazed sense of struggle and revolt.

    The Uttermost Farthing Marie Belloc Lowndes 1907

  • I consider myself as a kind of appanage to the family, for my ancestors for several generations were their _maggiordomos_.

    The Dodge Club or, Italy in MDCCCLIX James De Mille

  • "Festus Bailey" came to be, to the general mind, an amusing kind of appanage of his own work, which was now taken as read, but ceased to have readers.

    Hawthorne and His Circle Julian Hawthorne 1890

  • It was not sold, but is the 'appanage' of the younger sons of the house of Dacres.

    Some Private Views James Payn 1864

  • Younger sons of noble families proverbially come off second best in this country, but if one of them found his only 'appanage' was a mine, he would surely with some justice make a remonstrance.

    Some Private Views James Payn 1864

  • It's clear that one 'fantasy' is replaced by another (the old aborigine as 'savage' accomplice/support for the colonial/conquest projectiles and today the indigenous histrionic as utopia/dreamworld scenes: necessary appanage of todays projectiles what every they might be?): Of court Zizek's typical nought is that narrator building observances our viewer of the tryst ... but if he sees through the narrator why are his activists identical to us idlers still caught in them?

    Parajanov Contra Zizek (oder selbst proclaimed Brechtian Beast Z vs aSublime moving picture for magnitude of efficacy.) 2010

  • Long live his hollowed shipmate, the Argonaut's shamrock, appanage of a participate of your motherland's assassin!

    Why is There Scientist Instead of Wisdom? 2010

  • Isabelle de Croye, the Duke expects your Majesty will, on your part, as he on his, yield your assent to the marriage, and unite with him in endowing the right noble couple with such an appanage, as, joined to the

    Quentin Durward 2008

  • For the first offence, he was banished to his appanage of Dauphine, which he governed with much sagacity; for the second he was driven into absolute exile, and forced to throw himself on the mercy, and almost on the charity, of the Duke of Burgundy and his son; where he enjoyed hospitality, afterwards indifferently requited, until the death of his father in 1461.

    Quentin Durward 2008

  • “Will the Holy Mother receive you without an appanage?” he said in a voice of scorn.

    Quentin Durward 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "So they told him he might have his pick of the Enchanted Isles, which were then, as they still remain, the nominal appanage of Peru."

    - Melville, The Encantadas, Sketch Seventh

    September 28, 2011