mendicant

[ men-di-kuhnt ]

adjective

1. begging; practicing begging; living on alms.
2. pertaining to or characteristic of a beggar.

noun

1. a person who lives by begging; beggar.
2. a member of any of several orders of friars that originally forbade ownership of property, subsisting mostly on alms.

mendicant

/ mɛnˈdɪsɪtɪ; ˈmɛndɪkənt /

adjective

1. begging
2. (of a member of a religious order) dependent on alms for sustenance

   mendicant friars

3. characteristic of a beggar

noun

1. a mendicant friar
2. a less common word for beggar

Derived Forms

• ˈmendicancy, noun

Other Words From

• non·mendi·cant adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of mendicant¹

1425–75; late Middle English < Latin mendīcant- (stem of mendīcāns ), present participle of mendīcāre to beg, equivalent to mendīc ( us ) beggarly, needy + -ant- -ant

Word History and Origins

Origin of mendicant¹

C16: from Latin mendīcāre to beg, from mendīcus beggar, from mendus flaw

Example Sentences

Joining the Order of Saint Augustine, a mendicant order of the Catholic Church, Mendel was able to spend his life as a monk and therefore not have to worry about his livelihood.

From Salon

The friend began to hand a few coins to the mendicant, but the revolutionary stopped him, exclaiming: “Don’t delay the revolution!”

From Washington Post

Meanwhile, as Putin's military flattens cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol, making Russia an outlaw state, a mendicant Moscow is likely to become a cut-rate source of much-needed Chinese fuel and food imports.

From Salon

But Haddon also brought out a number of less familiar artifacts and canvases, among them “The Family of the Gypsy Bullfighter,” a festive 1903 scene by the Basque painter Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta, and the Catalan painter Ramón Casas i Carbó’s 1915-1916 “La Santera,” a near life-size study of a religious mendicant with a haunting gaze.

From New York Times

Clare doesn’t understand why this son of a silk merchant is wandering around like a nutty mendicant, but she recognizes what they have in common and suspects he has much to teach her.

From Los Angeles Times