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sinecure

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: sinécure

English

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WOTD – 1 June 2010

Etymology

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From Latin sine (“without”) + cūrā (“care”) in beneficium sine cūrā (“benefice without care”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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sinecure (plural sinecures)

  1. A position that requires little to no work, or easy work, but still gives an ample payment; a cushy job.
    Synonyms: bankers' hours, cushy number (Britain, informal)
    • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 14, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
      Miss Briggs was not formally dismissed, but her place as companion was a sinecure and a derision […]
    • 1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 35:
      A lucrative sinecure in the Excise was bestowed on Ferguson.
    • 1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion. Sequel: What Happened Afterwards.”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, page 196:
      His prospects consisted of a hope that if he kept up appearances somebody would do something for him. The something appeared vaguely to his imagination as a private secretaryship or a sinecure of some sort.
    • 2009, Michael O'Connor, Quadrant, November 2009, No. 461 (Volume LIII, Number 11), Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 25:
      In the ADF, while the numbers vary between the individual services and the reserves, employment is no comfortable sinecure for any personnel and thus does not appeal to many people, male or female, especially under current pay scales.
    • 2010, Mungo MacCallum, The Monthly, April 2010, Issue 55, The Monthly Ptd Ltd, page 28:
      However, by the time of World War II (if not before), politics, at least in the federal sphere, was no longer regarded as sinecure for well-intentioned part-timers.
  2. (historical) An ecclesiastical benefice without the care of souls.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Adjective

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sinecure (not comparable)

  1. Requiring no work for an ample reward.
    • 2006, Desmond Keenan, Post-Famine Ireland: Social Structure: Ireland as It Really Was, page 184:
      By the act of union (1800), the offices of Irish secretary, a sinecure post, and lord lieutenant's secretary were combined.
  2. Having the appearance of functionality without being of any actual use or purpose.

Verb

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sinecure (third-person singular simple present sinecures, present participle sinecuring, simple past and past participle sinecured)

  1. (transitive) To put or place in a sinecure.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Danish

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Etymology

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From French sinécure, from Latin sine (“without”) + cūra (“care”).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /sinəkyːrə/, [sinəˈkʰyːɐ]

Noun

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sinecure c (singular definite sinecuren, plural indefinite sinecurer)

  1. (rare) sinecure (a position that requires no work but still gives a payment)

Inflection

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Declension of sinecure
common
gender 		Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative sinecure sinecuren sinecurer sinecurerne
genitive sinecures sinecurens sinecurers sinecurernes

Further reading

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