Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A position or office that requires little or no work but provides a salary.
- n. Archaic An ecclesiastical benefice not attached to the spiritual duties of a parish.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An ecclesiastical benefice without cure of souls. In England these exist
- n. Hence Any office or position giving profitable returns without requiring work.
- Free from exaction; profitable without requiring labor; sinecural.
- To place in a sinecure.
Wiktionary
- n. A position that requires no work but still gives an ample payment; a cushy job.
- v. transitive To put or place in a sinecure.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An ecclesiastical benefice without the care of souls.
- n. Any office or position which requires or involves little or no responsibility, labor, or active service.
- v. To put or place in a sinecure.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an office that involves minimal duties
- n. a benefice to which no spiritual or pastoral duties are attached
Etymologies
- From Latin sine ("without") + cūrā ("care") in beneficium sine cūrā ("benefice without care"). (Wiktionary)
- From Medieval Latin (beneficium) sine cūrā, (benefice) without cure (of souls) : Latin sine, without + Latin cūrā, ablative of cūra, care; see cure. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Planning on enjoying a nice sinecure from the insurer by the time the patient dies.”
“When the claim Of a roan of distinguished merit arose, there was generally no vacancy of this kind; and when the vacancies occurred, the offices were in truth given away upon political or family considerations, without much re - gard to distinguished merit The word sinecure was a very unpopular word, and indeed so was the word pension, of which several no very favourable definitions had been given.”
“It's what they call a sinecure, "Alan was saying at the very instant the summons came.”
“Yeah, but at least Sullivan got elected to something even if its a minor town meeting based sinecure, that is way more than Kerry Healey could say prior to 2002.”
“Another Dutchman asked him not to ruin his friend and his family for what he was well aware could never be called a sinecure place, and was so precarious in its tenure.”
“The hated word sinecure did not seem to affect him from her lips as it would have done from any one else's.”
“And starts a string of "sinecure" jobs with the Dailey machine, then the U of Chicago as a "Diversity Queen" with flexible hours...”
"She shows women that it's OK to have dark skin and to not have a son. She's quite real to us."
“Without anybody's interposition I was appointed to a clerkship, a real "sinecure," in the”
“sinecure" which would have kept him in comfort to the end of his days.”
“If money were really so important to such people, then under the status quo, a so-minded justice is perfectly free to “favor” the “entities” likely to give him/her a high paying job, and then retire in time to enjoy said sinecure.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sinecure’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
syzygy, systyle, systematology, systatic, syssitia, syrtic, systaltic, syrt, syrinx, syphilomania, syphilology, syntrierarch and 1593 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Words to research
balkanize, obstreperous, dysphoria, euphoria, sinecure, abstruse, chin music, colophon, signature, notwithstanding, nullity, nullity of a dete... and 26 more...
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EN - high brow
abrogate, abstemious, abstract of law, alderman, apocryphal, apostasy, apoplexy, apotheosis, apposite, aver, decorous, apprehensive and 51 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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List 2(starting at 260)
mammoth, overt, valor, aspire, relegate, bias, incisive, scurry, precipitate, singular, inveigh, repulse and 48 more...
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GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1856 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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1100 words you need to know
GRE words
voracious, indiscriminate, replete, steeped, eminent, perceive, intrepid, compound, automaton, reticent, interminable, drudgery and 288 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sinecure.
myth17 GSoC can be Sinecure ;) Aug 9, 2012
whichbe *cough* Oct 15, 2008
uselessness I get paid to make ghosts on Wordie. It requires a great deal of care. Dec 19, 2007
reesetee I long for a sinecure. Dec 19, 2007
adoarns Cura is a false cognate in Latin—it actually means something like "cares," "responsibility," "concern." So sinecure actually means "without cares," or "without responsibility"; a job that doesn't actually require you to do anything.
Just like insert currently unpopular famous person's job. Zing! Dec 19, 2007
exlotuseater As seen in Ezra Pound's "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley"
"I never mentioned a man but with the view
"Of selling my own works.
"The tip's a good one, as for literature
"It gives no man a sinecure."
And no one knows, at sight a masterpiece.
And give up verse, my boy,
There's nothing in it." Jun 14, 2007
seanmeade literally means 'without cure (of souls)' in Latin, like you find in 'curate'. Refers to those positions in the church where someone didn't actually have a parish or didn't go. Remember your history about absentee priests? Mar 26, 2007