almoner

From Old English aumener, aulmener, from Old French almosnier, from almosne (“alms”), from Latin eleemosyna. See alms, Almosen.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæl.mə.nɚ/

almoner (plural almoners)

1. A person who distributes alms, especially the doles and alms of religious houses, almshouses.
2. A person who dispenses alms on behalf of another person.

   the almoner of a prince or bishop

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter V, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 54:

     Francesca, from where she stood, could hear the Queen giving a laughing account of the Due de Domville's attachment to Mademoiselle Menneville, the prettiest of her maids of honour, all of whom were pretty. "It is a passion of the good old time, and has already lasted some four years; but Madame la Duchesse de Vantadour, his mother, will not hear of it. Never before was a lover of fifty so put out, to think that he cannot yet have his own way. Not content with his own cares, when obliged to be absent he leaves his almoner to take charge of her. It is gallantry equally antediluvian and interminable; I suppose they will be married one day, and buried the next."

3. A hospital official responsible for patient welfare and aftercare.

• Monreal, moneral, nemoral, normale