ALMS  , 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 . EXei ovuvi7, compassion or mercy, from EXsos, 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 .