An office or position in the Christian church that provides income to the holder, such as a parish position; a position that provides benefits or advantages.
From Old French benefice, from Latin beneficium 'benefit, favor, preferment,' from beneficus 'doing good.' The church adopted this term for paid pastoral positions in the medieval period.
Benefice is why we have 'benefit'—but benefice remained frozen in church vocabulary while its cousin evolved into the common word we use today, making benefice a linguistic cousin stuck in the past.
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