the giving of relief, and the relief given, whether in goods or money, to the poor, particularly applied to the charity bestowed under a sense of religious obligation (see Charity And Charities). The word in O. Eng. was aelmysse, and is derived through the Teutonic adaptation (cf. the modern Ger. almosen ) of the Latinized form of the Gr. EXEn toabvf, compassion or mercy, from ' Xeo, pity. � The English word "eleemosynary," that which is given in the way of alms, charitable, gratuitous, derives direct from the Greek. "Alms" is often, like "riches," wrongly taken as a plural word.