grubstake : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 8 is:

grubstake \GRUB-stayk\ verb
: to provide with material assistance (as a loan) for launching an enterprise or for a person in difficult circumstances

Example sentence:
"Hoping to turn the situation around in California, the state now grubstakes entrepreneurs to try their hand at salvaging urban woods." (John Balzar, _Los Angeles Times_, March 8, 2004)

Did you know?
"Grubstake" is a linguistic nugget that was dug up during the famous California Gold Rush, which began in 1848. Sometime between the first stampede and the early 1860s, when the gold-seekers headed off to Montana, prospectors combined "grub" ("food") and "stake," meaning "an interest or share in an undertaking." At first "grubstake" was a noun, referring to any kind of loan or provisions that could be finagled to make an undertaking possible (with the agreement that the "grubstaker" would get a cut of any profits). By 1879, "grubstake" was also showing up as a verb meaning "to give someone a grubstake," and, since at least 1937, it has been applied to other situations in which a generous benefactor comes through with the funds.

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