sustenance
sus·te·nance
noun
1.
2.
3.
the act of sustaining life by food or providing a means of subsistence
- “they were in want of sustenance”
- “fishing was their main sustainment”
Origin
From Middle English sustenaunce, from Old French sustenance, from sustenir with the suffix -ance, from Vulgar Latin *sustenire, from Latin sustinere. Compare also Late Latin sustinentia. Equivalent to sustain + -ance.
Related words
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.