A variant form of almoign, referring to charitable donations or alms, especially property given to the Church for religious or charitable purposes.
An alternate spelling of almoign, reflecting different Old French manuscript traditions. All variants ultimately trace to Greek eleēmosunē through Latin. The variation shows how spelling was unstable in Middle English.
Medieval scribes spelled charity words dozens of different ways—almoin, almoign, alms—showing that standardized spelling is a surprisingly recent invention!
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