Largess: Generosity in giving. The opposite of avarice, greed, or stinginess. As an adjective, largess is generosity with money. Often, largess is a rather showy generosity. The giver wants everyone to notice. As a noun, largess is the money or gift itself.
This word came up in Latin class this morning. We were reading in Lingua Latina chapter 17. One of the characters in the book (Marcus) pointed out his teachers’ lack of largess.
Largess (also spelled largesse) comes from Latin largus meaning: ‘abundant, plentiful, bountiful’
Synonyms for the adjective: altruism, charity, philanthropy.
Synonyms for the noun: alms, gift, offering, present
