sinecure

From Latin sine (“without”) + cūrā (“care”) in beneficium sine cūrā (“benefice without care”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪ.nɪ.kjʊə/, /ˈsɪ.nɪ.kjʊə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪ.nə.kjʊɹ/, /ˈsɪn.ə.kjʊɹ/

sinecure (plural sinecures)

1. A position that requires no work but still gives an ample payment; a cushy job.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 14:

     Miss Briggs was not formally dismissed, but her place as companion was a sinecure and a derision ...

   • 1913, George Bernard Shaw, “Appendix”, in Pygmalion:

     His prospects consisted of a hope that if he kept up appearances somebody would do something for him. The something appeared vaguely to his imagination as a private secretaryship or a sinecure of some sort.

   • 2009, Michael O'Connor, Quadrant, November 2009, No. 461 (Volume LIII, Number 11), Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 25:

     In the ADF, while the numbers vary between the individual services and the reserves, employment is no comfortable sinecure for any personnel and thus does not appeal to many people, male or female, especially under current pay scales.

   • 2010, Mungo MacCallum, The Monthly, April 2010, Issue 55, The Monthly Ptd Ltd, page 28:

     However, by the time of World War II (if not before), politics, at least in the federal sphere, was no longer regarded as sinecure for well-intentioned part-timers.

   • Macaulay

     A lucrative sinecure in the Excise.

2. An ecclesiastical benefice without the care of souls.

   • Ayliffe, Universal Dictionary of Science, page 402

     A sinecure is a benefice without cure of souls.

• (a position that requires no work but still gives a payment): position

• sinecurism
• sinecurist

sinecure (third-person singular simple present sinecures, present participle sinecuring, simple past and past participle sinecured)

1. (transitive) To put or place in a sinecure.

• insecure

From French sinécure, from Latin sine (“without”) + cūra (“care”).

• IPA^(key): /sinəkyːrə/, [sinəˈkʰyːɐ]

sinecure c (singular definite sinecuren, plural indefinite sinecurer)

1. (rare) sinecure (a position that requires no work but still gives a payment)