munificence

• IPA^(key): /mjuːˈnɪfɪsəns/

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From Middle French munificence, from Latin munificentia, from munus (“gift”) + facio (“I make”).

munificence (usually uncountable, plural munificences)

1. The quality of being munificent; generosity.
   • 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page 3:

     Now the happy king laid the forehead of thankſgiving upon the duſt of gratitude; he opened the doors of his wealth to the four winds, and enriched the world, at once, with his munificence.

   • 1845, Lydia Sigourney, Scenes in my Native Land, The Great Oak of Geneseo, pages 86–87:

     And surely, no form of munificence should entitle to a more grateful and lasting remembrance, than that which promotes the right education of youth;...

Compare Latin munire (“to fortify”).

munificence

1. (obsolete) Means of defence; fortification.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Untill that Locrine for his Realmes defence,
     Did head against them make and strong munificence

Learned borrowing from Latin munificentia (“generosity”), from munus (“gift”).

• IPA^(key): /my.ni.fi.sɑ̃s/

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munificence f (plural munificences)

1. generosity, munificence, liberality

   Synonym: largesse

   • 1844, Honoré de Balzac, Modeste Mignon:

     Ce naïf soldat, [...] se crut l’homme le plus heureux du monde, en se voyant propriétaire d’une maison que la munificence de son chef garnit d’un joli mobilier [...]

     The naive soldier, […] thought himself the luckiest man in the world when he found himself the owner of a house which, thanks to his superior's munificence, was fitted out with some very nice furniture […]

• munificent

• “munificence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.