Etymology Dictionary

ALMS,   relief given to the poor.  (Gk.)   M.E. almesse, later almes.   Wyclif has almes, Luke, xi. 41.   Rob. of Glouc. has almesse, p. 330.   Still earlier, we have the A.S. forms ælmæsse and ælmesse, a word of three syllables.   [Thus ælmæs-se first became almes-se; and then, dropping the final syllable (-se), appeared as almes, in two syllables; still later, it became alms.   The A.S. ælmæsse is a corruption of eccles. Latin eleëmosyna, borrowed from Greek; the result being that the word has been reduced from six syllables to one.]—Gk. ἐλεημοσύνη, compassion, and hence, alms.—Gk. ἐλεήμων, pitiful.—Gk. ἐλεεῖν, to pity.   Der. alms-house.   From the same root, almoner, q.v.   ¶ The word alms is properly singular; hence the expression 'asked an alms;' Acts, iii. 3.