widow's mite

English

WOTD – 26 October 2018

Etymology

João Zeferino da Costa, O Óbolo da Viúva (The Widow’s Mite, 1876)^{[n 1]}

From the Bible account of the poor widow’s donation of two mites (or leptons, small coins of low value) to the temple contribution box, which Jesus Christ praised as more than the gifts presented by wealthy people, for “[a]ll these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on”: Luke 21:1–4 (New International Version); see also Mark 12:38–44.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪdəʊz ˈmaɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪdoʊz ˈmaɪt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪt
• Hyphenation: wi‧dow's mite

Noun

widow's mite (plural widow's mites)

1. (idiomatic) A very small gift or donation which, however, represents a great sacrifice on the part of the giver.
   • 1662, George Lawson, chapter XIII, in An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrewes. […], London: Printed by J. S. for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC, verse 16, page 354:

     The matter of this Duty, is ſomething of theſe worldly Goods which God hath given us, are juſtly our own, and which we may ſpare, though never ſo little, if but the poor Widow's mite: for God requires our Charity according to our portion, we must give willingly and plentifully.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Fast-fish and Loose-fish”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 443:

     What are the sinews and souls of Russian serfs and Republican slaves but Fast-Fish, whereof possession is the whole of the law? What to the rapacious landlord is the widow's last mite but a Fast-Fish?

   • 1857, Frederick Locker, “The Widow’s Mite”, in London Lyrics, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 72:

     The widow had but only one, / A puny and decrepid son; / But day and night, / Though fretful oft, and weak, and small, / A loving child, he was her all— / The widow's mite.

   • 1866, [Elizabeth Rundle Charles], chapter VII, in The Draytons and the Davenants: A Story of the Civil Wars, author’s edition, New York, N.Y.: M. W. Dodd, […], →OCLC, page 270:

     “A mite and the ‘widow’s mite,’ are some way apart, my dear,” said Aunt Dorothy; “your ‘widow’s mite,’ I suppose, might be the parsonage and the glebe, and those cows in your uncle’s park and meadow. Take care what you offer to the Lord. He sometimes takes us at our word. And there are plunderers abroad who take their own estimate of people’s mites, widows’ and others.”

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 13: Nausicaa]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 363:

     That widow on Monday was it outside Cramer's that looked at me. Buried the poor husband but progressing favorably on the premium. Her widow's mite.

   • 2008, Gwynne Forster, chapter 1, in What Matters Most (Arabesque Contemporary Romance), Washington, D.C.: Kimani Press, →ISBN:

     After the woman who gave me those ties left me that day, a cloud of guilt hung over me, and I couldn't shake it. It stayed with me through the night. I couldn't sleep. The woman was in her late sixties at the least, and she walked as if she carried the world on her shoulders. But she'd found a way to thank me. And I knew it was the widow's mite.

2. (numismatics) The lepton coin.
   • 2002, Ralph L. Stephenson, chapter 6, in The Biblical Guide to Wealth, Health, and Happiness, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, page 131:

     Leptons became famous as the "widows mites" when Christ observed a widow donating two of them to the temple treasury. Christ noted that she had donated more than everyone else had because that was all she had. The two mites were worth about 70 cents to one dollar in modern buying power, or about enough for a meal of beans.

Translations

very small gift or donation

Finnish: lesken ropo French: denier de la veuve m German: Scherflein (de) n Hungarian: szegény özvegy(asszony) két fillérje Irish: cianóg na baintrí f Polish: wdowi grosz (pl) m Russian: ле́пта (ru) f (lépta) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: цр̏кавица f Roman: cȑkavica (sh) f

(numismatics) lepton — see lepton

Notes

1. From the collection of the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Further reading

• lesson of the widow's mite on Wikipedia.Wikipedia