maintenance

English

/ˈmeɪnt(ə)nəns/

noun
Definitions
  • Actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service.
  • (legal) A tort committed when a third party who does not have a bona fide interest in a lawsuit provides help or acquires an interest to a litigant's lawsuit.
  • (legal) Alimony, a periodical payment or a lump sum made or ordered to be made to a spouse after a divorce.
  • (legal) child Child support.
  • Money required or spent to provide for the needs of a person or a family.
  • (biology) The natural process which keeps an organism alive.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English mayntenaunce derived from Old French maintenance derived from Latin manus tenere (hold in the hand, tenre) suffix from English maintain root from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (stretch, draw, extend, pull, clench, flex).

Origin

Proto-Indo-European

*ten-

Gloss

stretch, draw, extend, pull, clench, flex

Concept
Semantic Field

Basic actions and technology

Ontological Category

Action/Process

Emoji

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms