Word: bounty Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English bounte (“goodness, virtue; beauty; strength; chivalry, valour; excellence; kindness, mercy; good deed; generosity”) [and other forms], borrowed from Anglo-Norman bounté and Old French bonté, bontet, bunté (modern French bonté (“goodness, kindness”)), from Latin bonitās. Pronunciation: /ˈbaʊnti/, /ˈbaʊn(t)i/, [ˈb̥aʊ̯ɾ̃i], [ˈb̥ʌʊ̯ɾ̃i], /ˈbæɔnti/ 1. Generosity; also (countable) an act of generosity. Labels: uncountable Example: [H]is [Henry I, Duke of Guise's] gifts, though conferred for the interest of his ambition, appeared always scattered with an easy bounty. Example: She embraced Elizabeth and said in a voice of half-suppressed emotion, "Farewell, sweet lady, dearest Elizabeth, my beloved and only friend; may heaven, in its bounty, bless and preserve you; may this be the last misfortune that you will ever suffer! Live, and be happy, and make others so." 2. Something given liberally; a gift. Labels: countable Example: [...] We have given and granted, and by theſe Preſents for Us, Our Heirs, and Succeſſors, do give and grant unto the ſaid Governors of the Bounty of Queen ANNE, for the Augmentation of the Maintenance of the poor Clergy, hereby conſtituted, and their Succeſſors, all the Revenues of Firſt Fruits and yearly perpetual Tenths of all Dignities, Offices, Benefices, and Promotions Spiritual whatſoever, [...] Example: That in this age of boasted liberality, of peculiar Christian effort, of enlightened intelligence, and, let us add, in this free Commonwealth, the church should not be allowed to receive, use, control, and appropriate the bounties and charities of its pious friends, which accompany their prayers for her prosperity, we confess has not a little alarmed and astonished us. 3. A reward for some specific act, especially one given by an authority or a government. Labels: countable Example: Let us therefore conſider ſeparately the encouraging of exportation of corn by bounties, the allowing it to be exported without any bounty, and the prohibiting it to be exported at all in certain caſes— [...] It is not for the ſake of the farmer, but for the good of the nation at large, that this bounty [for exporting corn] is granted. The idea is, that it is more adviſeable to have food raiſed at home, than to truſt to other countries for the neceſſaries of life; and the bounty is held out as a temptation to the farmer, to induce him to raiſe at leaſt a ſufficiency of corn. Example: In addition to the above reservations, a number of small conditional grants were made to the descendants of Indians and white persons, forming a mixed race, [...]. Particular care was taken by the commissioners, when these grants were made, to confine the bounty of government to those alone who had claims to consideration, or their descendants, on account of services rendered, either by restraining the Indians from war, or in producing peace. [...] Particular care was taken, in agreeing to these grants, that the bounty extended to the individuals who were thus favored, should not be abused. 4. A reward for some specific act, especially one given by an authority or a government. Labels: countable, specifically, uncountable Example: Whatever may be said in favor of bounties on the larger beasts of prey, those on hawks, owls, and the smaller fur-bearing animals can not be justified. Payments of this sort should cease, and laws should be enacted to protect species which careful investigations have shown to be mainly beneficial. [...] The payment of bounties on hawks of any kind is open to the objection that officials hardly ever discriminate between the harmful and the useful kinds, even when the statutes do so. [...] The bounty on owls is still more reprehensible, since owls are a more decided check to rodent increase. Example: In her six years as a bounty hunter she witnessed many things. Professional gunfighters who worked for hire. A U.S. Marshal who walked into a bar where five killers waited for him and strolled out a few minutes later with a warm gun in his hand and five bodies to bring back to Colorado. 5. A reward for some specific act, especially one given by an authority or a government. Labels: countable, historical, uncountable Example: It was in the army to which bounties were thus given to privates, that the memorialists were officers; and gallant officers the history of that war amply proves they were. If the soldiers of that army and even the heirs of those who volunteered their services for a given and short period, but who were killed or died in service, had such large recognized claims on the bounty of the nation, it is not, [...] easily to be perceived why their officers, [...] have not claims equally strong. Example: There is, in this case, not a particle of evidence tending even to show that the soldier ever received any bounty or gratuity on account of any or all of his service except $66.66, two-thirds of the amount of bounty payable under the act of July 22, 1861, [...] 6. An abundance or wealth. Labels: countable, figuratively Example: The bounty of Texas consists of a state full of rich living and traditions, stretching centuries back to the Indians, through the Spanish, Mexicans, and Anglos, to all the many nationalities that moved in and then spread out through Texas and the Southwest. Example: America insulted the rest of the planet, thought Malik Solanka in his old-fashioned way, by treating such bounty with the shoulder-shrugging casualness of the inequitably wealthy.