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Pittance

Small gift

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
1 min read
Source updated April 25, 2026

Pittance (through Old French pitance and from Latin pietas, loving-kindness) is a gift to the members of a religious house for masses, consisting usually of an extra allowance of food or wine on occasions such as the anniversary of the donor's death, festivals, or other similar occasions. The word was early transferred to a charitable donation and to any small gift of food or money.

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This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Pittance”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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