maintenance

maintenance

English

Etymology

From Middle English mayntenaunce, from Old French maintenance, from maintenir, from Latin manus tenēre (“to hold in the hand”). Surface analysis is maintain +‎ -ance.

Note that maintain has undergone a sound and spelling change, hence is spelt with -tain-, rather than the -ten- still found in maintenance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪnt(ə)nəns/, /ˈmeɪntɪnəns/, [ˈmẽɪ̃(n)ʔ(ə)nəns]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

maintenance (usually uncountable, plural maintenances)

1. Actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service.
   • 2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 42:

     They are all preventable by proper maintenance, but non-safety critical maintenance has to be evaluated, so failures are an accepted penalty for keeping maintenance costs down.

2. (law) A tort and (in some jurisdictions) an offence committed when a third party who does not have a bona fide interest in a lawsuit provides help or acquires an interest to a litigant's lawsuit.
3. (law, UK) Alimony, a periodical payment or a lump sum made or ordered to be made to a spouse after a divorce.
4. (law) Child support.
5. Money required or spent to provide for the needs of a person or a family.
   • 1815 [1802], William Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence:

     From Pond to Pond he roamed, from moor to moor; / Housing, with God's good help, by choice or chance: / And in this way he gained an honest maintenance.

6. (biology) The natural process which keeps an organism alive.

Derived terms

• cap of maintenance
• high-maintenance
• low-maintenance
• maintenance-free
• maintenance hole
• maintenance margin
• maintenance window
• percussive maintenance
• postmaintenance
• premaintenance
• preventative maintenance
• telemaintenance

 

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ten-‎ (1 c, 60 e)

Translations

keeping a machine or system in service

Arabic: صِيَانَة‎ f (ṣiyāna) Azerbaijani: qulluq Bulgarian: поддръжка (bg) f (poddrǎžka) Catalan: manteniment (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 保養／保养 (zh) (bǎoyǎng), 維持／维持 (zh) (wéichí), 保守 (zh) (bǎoshǒu) Czech: údržba (cs) f Danish: vedligeholdelse c Dutch: onderhoud (nl) n, handhaving (nl) f Esperanto: bontenado Estonian: hooldus Finnish: kunnossapito (fi) French: entretien (fr) m, maintenance (fr) f Galician: mantemento (gl) m Georgian: ტექნიკური მომსახურება (ṭekniḳuri momsaxureba) German: Instandhaltung (de) f, Wartung (de) f Hungarian: szerviz (hu), karbantartás (hu) Icelandic: viðhald n Indonesian: perawatan (id), pemeliharaan (id) Irish: coinneáil f Italian: manutenzione (it) f Japanese: 保守 (ja) (hoshu), 維持 (ja) (iji) Korean: 보존 (ko) (bojon) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: خزمەت‎ (xizmet) Latin: tuitiō f Macedonian: одржување n (održuvanje) Malay: penyenggaraan Malayalam: പരിപാലനം (ml) (paripālanaṃ) Norwegian: Bokmål: vedlikehold n Nynorsk: vedlikehald n Polish: konserwacja (pl) f Portuguese: manutenção (pt) f Russian: обслу́живание (ru) n (obslúživanije), ремо́нт (ru) m (remónt) Scottish Gaelic: gleidheadh m, cumail suas f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: одржа́вање n Roman: održávanje n Spanish: mantenimiento (es) m Swedish: underhåll (sv) n Tagalog: panataman Turkish: bakım (tr) Vietnamese: bảo trì (vi), bảo dưỡng

tort

Chinese: Cantonese: 助訟 (zo6 zung6) Mandarin: 助訟／助讼 (zhùsòng) Danish: hævdelse c, forsvar n

legal: payment made to a spouse after a divorce — see alimony

child support — see child support

money to provide for the means of living

Bulgarian: издръжка (bg) f (izdrǎžka) Finnish: elantokustannukset pl German: Unterhalt (de) Latin: tuitiō f Maori: moni oranga

process of keeping an organism alive

Esperanto: bontenado Finnish: elintoimintojen ylläpito French: maintenance (fr) Italian: mantenimento (it) Portuguese: mantimento (pt) Spanish: mantenimiento (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Arabic: (please verify) صِيَانَة‎ f (ṣiyāna) Irish: cothabháil f Romanian: (please verify) întreținere (ro) f

Further reading

• maintenance in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• maintenance in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• maintenance at OneLook Dictionary Search

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French

Etymology

maintenir (“to maintain”) +‎ -ance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛ̃t.nɑ̃s/

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

Noun

maintenance f (plural maintenances)

1. maintenance

Further reading

• “maintenance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.