alimony

English

Etymology

Known since 1655, from Latin alimōnia (“food, support, nourishment, sustenance”) (English aliment, as in alimentary), itself from alere (“to nourish”) + -mōnia (“action, state, condition”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈæ.lɪ.mə.ni/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæ.lɪ.moʊ.ni/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

alimony (countable and uncountable, plural alimonies)

1. (law) A court-mandated allowance made to a former spouse by a divorced or legally separated person.

   Synonym: maintenance

   • 1985, Joel Schumacher; Carl Kurlander, St. Elmo's Fire, spoken by Kevin Dolenz (Andrew McCarthy):

     Who won, huh? Nobody. Used to be sex was the only free thing, No longer. Alimony… palimony… it's all financial. Love is an illusion.

2. The means to support life.

Derived terms

• alimonious
• palimony
• vaginamony

Related terms

• aliment
• alimentary

Translations

a court-enforced allowance

• Arabic: نَفَقَة‎ (nafaqa)
• Bulgarian: издръжка (bg) (izdrǎžka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 贍養費 (zh), 赡养费 (zh) (shànyǎngfèi)

• Czech: výživné n, alimenty (cs) m pl
• Danish: hustrubidrag n
• Dutch: alimentatie (nl) f, alimentatiegeld n
• Esperanto: nutramono, alimento (eo)
• Finnish: elatusapu (fi)
• French: pension alimentaire (fr) f
• Georgian: ალიმენტი (alimenṭi)
• German: Unterhalt (de) m, Alimente (de) pl
• Greek: επίδομα διατροφής n (epídoma diatrofís), (colloquial) διατροφή (el) f (diatrofí)

• Hebrew: מְזוֹנוֹת‎ (he) m pl (mezonót)
• Irish: ailiúnas m
• Italian: alimenti (it) m pl
• Japanese: (離婚 (ja) (りこん, rikon)) 扶養料 (ふようりょう, fuyōryō)
• Manx: argid scarrey poosee m
• Polish: alimenty (pl) m pl
• Portuguese: pensão alimentícia f, pensão (pt) f
• Romanian: pensie de întreținere (ro) f, pensie alimentară (ro) f
• Russian: алименты (ru) m pl (alimenty)
• Spanish: pensión (es) (alimenticia (es)) f
• Swedish: underhåll (sv)
• Thai: ค่าอุปการะเลี้ยงดู (kâa-ùp-bpà-gaa-rá-líiang-duu)
• Turkish: nafaka (tr)
• Ukrainian: аліме́нти (uk) m pl (aliménty)

the means to support life

• Dutch: onderhoud (nl) n, dagelijks brood n, levensonderhoud (nl) n
• Finnish: toimeentulo (fi), elanto (fi), elatus (fi)
• Greek: τροφεία (el) n pl (trofeía)

• Irish: ailiúnas m
• Latin: alimonia f
• Russian: сре́дства к существова́нию n pl (srédstva k suščestvovániju)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Italian: ^{(please verify)} alimenti (it)
• Japanese: 別居扶助料 (bekkyo fujoryō)

• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} alimentacija f
• Telugu: ^{(please verify)} మనోవర్తి (te) (manōvarti)

Further reading

• alimony on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Molniya