noun / adjective
mendicant
MEN-dih-kunt/ˈmendɪkənt/
A person who lives by begging, especially for religious reasons, or relating to this way of life.
A mendicant asks passersby for food outside the market.
Etymology
The pieces describe someone engaged in begging: the Latin participle became a noun for the person asking alms. Religious mendicants likewise depended on alms for support.
In context
his guest was no mere bead-telling mendicant, but a scholar of parts.
More examples
- The mendicant friars depend on alms rather than personal wealth.
- Travelers offer bread to the mendicants beside the road.
- He chooses a mendicant life, relying on others for food.
Forms
mendicant · mendicants
mendicancy noun — The practice of living by begging.
Similar words
- beggar
- The everyday term, without the same association with religious practice.
- panhandler
- Usually someone asking strangers for money in public places.