sustenance

Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French, from sustenir (14c) with the suffix -ance, from Vulgar Latin *sustenire, from Latin sustinere. Cf. also Late Latin sustinentia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsʌs.tə.nəns/

Noun

sustenance (countable and uncountable, plural sustenances)

1. Something that provides support or nourishment.
   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion‎:

     More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.