Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRES'TI-MO-NY, n. [Port. and Sp. prestimonio; L. præsto, to supply; præ and sto.]

In canon law, a fund for the support of a priest, appropriated by the founder, but not erected into any title of benefice, and not subject to the pope or the ordinary, but of which the patron is the collator. – Port. Dict. Encyc. But in a Spanish Dictionary thus defined, “a prebend for the maintenance of poor clergymen, on condition of their saying prayers at certain stated times.”