subsistence

noun

Etymology: From Middle English subsistence; partly from Middle French subsistence (modern French subsistance) and partly from its etymon Late Latin subsistentia (“substance, reality, in Medieval Latin also stability”), from Latin subsistēns, present participle of subsistere (“to continue, subsist”). Perhaps also partly from subsist + -ence.

1. Real being; existence.

   “the human nature loseth its proper subsistence , and is assumed into the subsistence of the divine nature”

2. The act of maintaining oneself at a minimum level.
3. Inherency.

   “the subsistence of qualities in bodies”

4. Something (food, water, money, etc.) that is required to stay alive.

   “In the general course of human nature, a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will.”

   “His viceroy could only propose to himself a comfortable subsistence out of the plunder of his province.”

5. Embodiment or personification or hypostasis of an underlying principle or quality.