It's the Word of the Day podcast for August 6th.
Today's word is largesse, also pronounced largesse and spelled L-A-R-G-E-S-S-E.
Largesse is a noun.
It's a somewhat formal word that refers to the act of giving away money or the generosity of a person who gives away money.
It can also refer to the money that is given away.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Alney Enterprise.
Over the years, Shelter Box USA,
an outgrowth of the Rotary Club and named for the relief boxes it distributes,
has helped nearly 3 million people in some of the world's worst disaster zones.
It hands out basic survival needs, tents, tools, and household supplies.
Twice the organization has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for its life-preserving largesse.
The English language has benefited from the largesse of Anglo-French,
through which a generous number of words have passed.
Examples range from the words simple to account to dessert.
English speakers owe Anglo-French a huge thanks, in particular for its adjective large.
That word, meaning generous, broad, or wide,
is the source of both largesse and the familiar duo of large and enlarge.
Most people understand enlarge to mean to make larger,
but a less common sense used in Shakespeare's Henry V is to set free.
Largesse also contains the notion of freedom,