pittance

noun

Etymology: From Middle English pitaunce, from Old French pitance, pitence, from Medieval Latin *pietāntia, from Latin pietās (“piety”).

1. A small allowance of food and drink; a scanty meal.
2. A meagre allowance of money or wages.

   “In the very prime of life, Mr. Glentworth found every prospect gone; he had only a meagre pittance, compared to his former expenditure; but he had neither the habits nor the opportunity of increasing it.”

   “So I went to keep house with him at the Why Not? and my aunt sent down my bag of clothes, and would have made over to Elzevir the pittance that my father left for my keep, but he said it was not needful, and he would have none of it.”

3. A small amount.

   “The former residents of Fraguas, who sold up for a pittance, have swung behind the resettlement, happy to see life return to the narrow lanes where they grew up.”