congiary
UK/ˈkɒn.d͡ʒə.ɹi/US/ˈkɑn.d͡ʒiˌɛɹi/
congiary noun: a present of corn, wine, oil, etc. or later of money, made by a Roman emperor to the soldiers or the common people.
Noun
congiary (plural congiaries)
- A present of corn, wine, oil, etc. or later of money, made by a Roman emperor to the soldiers or the common people.
- We often fee on them the emperor, and two or three general officers, sometimes sitting, and sometimes standing, as they made speeches, or distributed a congiary to the soldiers or people1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
- On his arrival in Rome in the year A.D. 219, Elagabalus thought well to carry through the laudable custom (for the poor) of bestowing the usual congiary on the people. If Mediobarbus were to be trusted, he gave six such during his short reign of approximately four years, besides the soldiers'...1911, John Stuart Hay, The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus
Forms of congiary
| plural | congiaries |
|---|
Origin of congiary
From Latin congiarium, from congius (“a liquid measure”).
Questions about congiary
- What does congiary mean?
- Congiary means a present of corn, wine, oil, etc. or later of money, made by a Roman emperor to the soldiers or the common people.
- What part of speech is congiary?
- Congiary is a noun.
- How do you pronounce congiary?
- Congiary is pronounced /ˈkɒn.d͡ʒə.ɹi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of congiary?
- The plural of congiary is congiaries.
Words near congiary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: congiary (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “congiary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/congiary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.