pensioner
(ˈpɛnʃənə(r))
Also 5 pensener, 6–7 penc-, pentioner.
[a. AF. pensionner = OF. pensionnier (1365 in Godef.) = med.L. pensiōnārius; f. pension, pension: see -er2.]
I. One who receives a pension or payment.
1. One who is in receipt of pension or regular pay; one who is in the pay of another; in early use, a paid or hired soldier, a mercenary; in 17–18th c. often with implication of base motives: a hireling, tool, creature.
| 1487 Rolls of Parlt. VI. 396/2 The said Wages, Fees and Rewardes, of the said Capiteyne, Lieutenaunte and Souldeours, Artificers, Pensioners and Feodaries, of the said Towne of Caleis and Castell ther. 1549 Compl. Scot. xx. 166 Ȝe ar be cum sodiours & pensionaris to ȝour enemeis. 1673 Essex Papers (Camden) I. 76 All which gives me ground to suspect he is a Pensioner of France. a 1693 Ld. Delamere Chas. II.'s Pensioners Wks. (1694) 116 The Name of a Pensioner is very distastful to every English Spirit. 1732 Pope Ep. Bathurst 394 In Britain's Senate he a seat obtains, And one more pensioner St. Stephen gains. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 5 June, If all the clerks of the Treasury, of the Secretaries, the War-office and the Admiralty should take it in their heads to throw up their places, in imitation of the great pensioner [Pitt]. 1863 Annals of Engl. III. 63 (an. 1668) Charles [II.] became the pensioner of the French king. 1874 Motley Barneveld I. ix. 365 A tool of the court and a secret pensioner of Spain. |
b. spec. One who is in receipt of a pension or stated allowance, in consideration of past services or on account of injuries received in service; formerly applied esp. to the inmates of Chelsea and Greenwich Hospitals.
| 1706–1849 [see out-pensioner]. 1721 Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 44 (1754) 234 If the single article of losing an arm or a leg gives a man the precedence of æneas, many a poor pensioner of Chelsea college hath an equal right to it with his lordship. 1834 Tait's Mag. 196/2 The office of Comptrollers of Army Accounts is to be abolished, and the in-pensioners of Kilmainham are to be removed to Chelsea. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xx. IV. 408 Greyheaded old pensioners who crept about the arcades and alleys of Chelsea Hospital. |
† c. One maintained by public charity or in a charitable institution. Obs.
| 1557 Order of Hospitalls C j, The Number of children remaining and Pencioners relieved at the Cities charge. |
† d. The recipient of an ecclesiastical pension; a beneficed clergyman: = pensionary n.1 1 b.
| 1578 Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 22 Gif ony beneficit man or pensionare sall happin to be slayne,..the narrest qualifiit persoun of his kin sal have the presentatioun and provisioun of his benefice and gift of his pensioun. 1581 Ibid. 422 Parson of Eglischame and vicar pensioner of Kilmarnok. |
e. fig.
| 1742 Young Nt. Th. i. 67 And can Eternity belong to me, Poor Pensioner on the Bounties of an Hour? 1878 B. Taylor Deukalion i. i. 17 We, Earth's pensioners, Expect less bounty when her store is scant. |
† 2. spec. One of a body of gentlemen, instituted by Henry VIII in 1509, as a body-guard to the sovereign within the royal palace; a gentleman-at-arms: = gentleman 2 b. Obs.
Originally called Spearmen, in 1539 Pensioners, later Gentlemen-Pensioners; now Gentlemen-at-arms.
| a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 239 The kyng rode to the last ende of the ranke where the Speares or Pencyoners stoode. 1573–80 Baret Alv. P 253 Pensioner, a Gentleman about his Prince alwaie redie, with his speare: a spearer. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. ii. ii. 79. 1601 Stow Annals 973 (an. 1539) In the moneth of December, were appointed to wayte on the kings person 50. Gentlemen, called Pencioners or Speares, like as they were in the first yeere of the king. 1603 Ld. G. Hunsden Let. to Jas. I in Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. (1737) 230 It pleased Her Majesty..to grace me with the Captain-ship of Her Band of Gentlemen-Pensioners. 1630–1706 [see gentleman 2 b]. 1737 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. 229 His Majesty's Honourable Band of Gentlemen-Pensioners. Ibid. 231 The Band of Pensioners have the Honour to bear the King's Royal Banner. |
† b. transf. A member of a body-guard, an attendant, a retainer. Obs.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 417 When his guard and pensioners were come to this cottage where he [Antiochus] had beene lodged. 1632 ― Cyrupœdia 173 Hereupon he draweth out of them a guard of ten thousand Pensioners, who night and day should watch..his Palace. |
| fig. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 10, I serue the Fairy Queene,..The Cowslips tall, her pensioners bee. 1632 Milton Penseroso 10 Hovering dreams, The fickle Pensioners of Morpheus train. |
3. The officer in the Inns of Court who collected the pensions, kept the pension-book or pension-roll, and accounted for the moneys received (cf. pension n. 5). Obs. exc. Hist.
| 1429–30 Black Bks. of Lincoln's Inn I. 4 Pensener. 1481–2 Ibid. 74 To maister Lovell, at y{supt} tyme Pensionar. 1507 Inner Temple Rec. 9 On part to remayne in the seid chest and the other with the pencyoner. 1570 Pension Bk. Gray's Inn 1 There shalbe provided 3 dozen of sasers be the pencioner. 1651 Black Bks. Lincoln's Inn II. 393 It is ordered..that there shalbe a Pencioner yearely chosen. 1663 in Waterhouse Comm. Fortescue's De Laud. Leg. 544 Of these [Benchers] is one yearly chosen, which is called the Treasurer, or in some house Pensioner, who receiveth yearly the said pension money. 1903 Staple Inn & its Story 54 The pensioner, corresponding much to what we term the bursar of a college, was elected by the ancients. |
† 4. A pensionary of a Dutch city or province; the (Grand) Pensionary of Holland. Obs.
| 1652 Earl of Monmouth tr. Bentivoglio's Hist. Relat. 5 The greatest is usually compos'd of one or two Burgomasters, some Sheriffs, one Scout Master, one Treasurer, and one or two Pensioners. 1669 Lond. Gaz. No. 428/4 The Heer Iohan de Witt Counsellor of Dordrecht, and a neer kinsman of the Pensioner of that name. 1673 Temple Observ. United Prov. Wks. 1731 I. 32 The Pensioner..is a Civil-Lawyer, vers'd in the Customs, and Records, and Privileges of the Town, concerning which he informs the Magistracy upon Occasion, and vindicates them upon Disputes with other Towns. 1756 Nugent Gr. Tour, Netherl. I. 19 The pensioner of Holland, who sits with the nobility, delivers their vote, and assists at all their deliberations. |
II. One who makes a stated periodical payment.
† 5. A tributary. Obs. rare.
| 1590 R. Hichcock Quintess. Wit 60 A State..her neighbours, to haue her their freende, doo make them selues her Pencionares. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. iv. 210 In the meine tyme the Britanis quha now x ȝeiris had bene pensioneris to the Scottis, quyetlie, throuch counsel of Conan..conspyre against the Scottis and Peychtes. |
6. At Cambridge University: An undergraduate student who is not a Scholar on the foundation of a college, or a Sizar; one who pays for his own commons and other expenses; = Commoner at Oxford.
| ? c 1450 in Cole's MS. (B.M. Addit. 5845) lf. 179 b, Item, the Monkys pay to the Bedellys in Quinquagesima Dominica, every Monke that is a Pensyoner—xxd... except that he be a Graduatt, then he shall not pay. 1570 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 3 The Pensionars were also forthwith propoundid. 1775 Mason Mem. Gray Gray's Poems 3 From thence he removed to St. Peter's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted a pensioner in the year 1734. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 111 The greater pensioners are sons of the nobility..dine with the fellows..the lesser pensioners dine with the scholars that are on the foundation, but live at their own expense. 1888 A. Dobson Goldsmith 20 He [Goldsmith] had hoped to go to Trinity College as a pensioner. 1900 Camb. Univ. Cal, 5 Orders in the several Colleges: 1. Head, 2. Fellows,..6. Scholars, 7. Pensioners, who form the great body of the Students, who pay for their commons, chambers, &c., 8. Sizars. |
† 7. One who lives in a house or institution paying for lodging and board; a boarder; esp. a girl or woman living en pension in a convent or school in France, Belgium, etc.; = F. pensionnaire. Obs.
| 1672 Dryden Assignation iv. iv, We are the two new pensioners, Laura and Violetta. 1691 tr. Emilianne's Observ. Journ. Naples 137 All of them take in Pensioners, and there is never a Religious House, that hath not at the least Three⁓score or Fourscore of them. 1745 Eliza Heywood Female Spect. No. 10 (1748) II. 187 She entered into a monastery, where she still lives a pensioner. 1827 Scott Napoleon ii. Wks. 1870 IX. 397 note, The..convent..where Josephine was..a pensioner or boarder. |
8. attrib., as pensioner guide, pensioner messenger; pensioner parliament (see parliament n.1 8).
| 1678 Luttrell Brief Rel. 9 Nov. (1857) I. 3 It was a parliament that gave those vast summs of money, and therefore called the pensioner parliament. 1711–12 Steele Spect. No. 326 ¶2 A Band of Pensioner-Matrons, and an old Maiden Relation. 1856 Ruskin Harbours Eng. Pref., My pensioner guide..at Greenwich Hospital. 1898 Daily News 22 Mar. 5/2 Wherever there are park-keepers wanted, customs watchers, prison warders, inland revenue, or pensioner messengers, there the retired soldier has his chance. |
Hence ˈpensionership, the office or position of a pensioner (in quot. in sense 3).
| 1569 Pension Bk. Gray's Inn (1901) 3 Mr. Stanhope for hys dilligence used in thoffice of the pentionershipp shalbe allowed on varlett. |