sinecure

See also: sinécure

English

WOTD – 1 June 2010

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪ.nɪ.kjʊə/, /ˈsɪ.nɪ.kjʊə/
• IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪ.nə.kjʊɹ/, /ˈsɪn.ə.kjʊɹ/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Noun

sinecure (plural sinecures)

1. A position that requires no work but still gives an ample payment; a cushy job.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 14:

     Miss Briggs was not formally dismissed, but her place as companion was a sinecure and a derision ...

   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, Volume III, Chapter XI, page 35:

     A lucrative sinecure in the Excise was bestowed on Ferguson.

   • 1913, George Bernard Shaw, “Appendix”, in Pygmalion:

     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. An ecclesiastical benefice without the care of souls.

   • Ayliffe, Universal Dictionary of Science, page 402

     A sinecure is a benefice without cure of souls.

Hypernyms

• (a position that requires no work but still gives a payment): position

Related terms

• sinecurism
• sinecurist

Translations

a position that requires no work but still gives a payment

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 乾俸／干俸 (zh) (gānfèng), 干俸 (gānfèng), 閒職／闲职 (xiánzhí), 闲职 (xiánzhí)

• Danish: loppetjans c, sinecure c (very rare)
• Dutch: sinecure (nl)
• Estonian: sinekuur
• Finnish: laiskanvirka, suojatyöpaikka (fi)
• French: sinécure (fr), (vulgar) planque (fr)
• German: Sinekure (de) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: αργομισθία (el) f (argomisthía)
• Japanese: 閑職 (かんしょく, kanshoku)
• Portuguese: sinecura (pt) f
• Romanian: sinecură (ro) f
• Russian: синеку́ра (ru) f (sinekúra), тёпленькое месте́чко n (tjóplenʹkoje mestéčko), корму́шка (ru) f (kormúška) (feeding trough)
• Serbo-Croatian: sinekura (sh) f, (pejorative) uhljebljenje n
• Spanish: canonjía (es), sinecura (es), (vulgar) enchufe (es), prebenda (es)

Verb

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

Anagrams

• insecure

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Danish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

sinecure c (singular definite sinecuren, plural indefinite sinecurer)

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

Inflection

Declension of sinecure

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