philanthropy
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: Borrowed from Late Latin philanthrōpia, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek φιλανθρωπία (philanthrōpía). By surface analysis, phil- + -anthropy.
Inflected forms:
form: philanthropies
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: phylanthropy
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of humankind.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Secondly, Another excellent Diſpoſition in Chriſt, is his Love, not only his Phylanthropy, or good Will he bears to all men, and the Deſire he hath of their Salvation, Ezek[iel] 33. 11.
[T]he spirit of the Gospel has given to many of its enlightened disciples, the impulse of such a philanthropy as carries abroad their wishes and their endeavours to the very outskirts of human population—philanthropy, of which, if you asked the extent or the boundary of its field, we should answer, in the language of inspiration, that 'the field is the world;' a philanthropy which overlooks all the distinctions of cast and of colour, and spreads its ample regards over the whole brotherhood of the species; a philanthropy which attaches itself to man in the general; […]
The philanthropy needed, which shall be ever ready to toil, and possessed of an untiring patience equal to perpetual contest with difficulty, is a philanthropy which looks beyond the outward, and is moved by something more durable than mere sensibility or sympathy for physical distress. It is a philanthropy which, underneath rags and filth, shrouded by the darkness of ignorance, oppressed and stifled by the warfare of passion, can catch glimpses of the immortal spirit.
Because an individual should have been an habitual drunkard, however thoroughly and soundly he may have reformed, yet according to this doctrine, he is forever totally debarred the privilege of rising to the level, in a moral view, of that individual who has never been drunk; this is, indeed, holding out a weak incentive for such reformations. This is not the language of true Phylanthropy; this is not the doctrine of Christianity; in the sight of the Saviour, the prostrate, self abased, self condemned publican, was accepted rather than the haughty, self righteous Pharisee […]
Doing philanthropy involves acts as diverse as consoling or cavorting with a child who has cancer, taking tickets at an art exhibit, writing a check for a relief agency, investing in the endowment of a private liberal arts college, and raising the funds that make the endowment possible.
gloss: Charitable giving, charity.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: As public funding is reduced, we depend increasingly on private philanthropy.
I have tried, as I hinted, to enlist the co-operation of other capitalists, but experience has taught me that any appeal is futile that does not impinge directly upon cupidity. If there is the least hint of philanthropy in the project, every man of money fights shy of it.
Turning large fortunes into public assets for the good of mankind was a huge project. But what gave philanthropy even more of a central place in modern American life was the simultaneous creation of a people's philanthropy—or mass philanthropy—that engaged the large American middle and working classes in their own welfare. Philanthropy would not be a democratic value if it remained the domain of the wealthy. Only when the rest of the population aligned its old welfare institutions and charitable habits to the systematic search for the common good would philanthropy become a national commitment.
gloss: A philanthropic act.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: His tombstone lists his various philanthropies.
By all accounts Mrs. Morden was a faithful civic worker, unpretentious in her philanthropies which were carried on even after her retirement from Sunday School work. Her brother has a happy memory of the church's presenting her with a gift in appreciation of her long years of service.
Her [María Micaela's] philanthropies included large sums to the Colegio de Propaganda Fide in Pachuca, of which she was the guardian and for which she purchased the relics of Santa Colomba.
French Taylor and Andy Patterson also performed other philanthropies for their respective communities. They bought school shoes for the children of poor families in the autumn, and they made small cash loans to neighbors that some never repaid. Such men often disguised their philanthropies in requests for assistance with monumental hog killings and syrup makings. Patterson would rise in his Vistula church to announce such occasions and ask for help, though in truth he had all the hands he needed in his own sons and daughters. After the hog slaughtering or syrup making, many neighbors went home with wagonloads of meat and molasses, two of the "three M's" (meat, molasses, and meal) that tided families over the winter.
gloss: A charitable foundation.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: the Rockefeller philanthropies
[…] Walter Vrooman, a well-to-do Kansas liberal, and Charles A. Beard, undertook a philanthropy designed to build solidly on a British base. The scheme they worked out for a labor college at Oxford, Ruskin Hall, met with fairly cordial British response and in time played a role of some importance in the labor movement.
The French Jewish philanthropies were the first to introduce European agricultural technology into the Yishuv on a sizeable scale. French and Algerian methods of horti- and viticulture promoted a network of Jewish plantations based on luxury as well as field crops. Despite their technical successes, the philanthropies intentionally restricted their Palestinian activities; this limitation stemmed from the philanthropies’ goal of individual, not national, regeneration.
Some of the initiatives that have been developed with support of the NRFC [National Rural Funders Collaborative] include providing new sources of capital for promoting sustainable agriculture and forestry, new financial products for low-income residents of rural areas, cooperative models for rural economic development, and new small-scale local philanthropies in Appalachia, Georgia, Mississippi, Minnesota, Montana, Louisiana, and numerous Native American reserves.
Synonyms: philanthropism
Antonyms: misanthropy
Derived words: aphilanthropy
e-philanthropy
filmanthropy
microphilanthropy
philanthrocapitalism
philanthrope
philanthropic
philanthropical
philanthropically
philanthropinism
philanthropinist
philanthropise
philanthropize
philanthropist
philanthropoid
Translations: