aid

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /eɪd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪd
• Homophone: aide

Etymology 1

From Middle English aide, eide, ayde, from Old French eide, aide, from aidier, from Latin adiūtō, adiūtāre (“to assist, help”). Cognates include Spanish ayuda, Portuguese ajuda and Italian aiuto.

Alternative forms

• aide (obsolete except in sense of "aide-de-camp")
• ayde (obsolete)

Noun

aid (countable and uncountable, plural aids)

1. (uncountable) Help; assistance; succor, relief.

   He came to my aid when I was foundering.

   • 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. , volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, , →OCLC:

     An unconstitutional method of obtaining aid.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”

2. (countable) A helper; an assistant.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Tobit 8:6:

     It is not good that man should bee alone, let vs make vnto him an aide like to himselfe.

3. (countable) Something which helps; a material source of help.
   • 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 16:

     The human is so poorly designed for aquatic adventures that he cannot even see in the water without artificial aids.

   • 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:

     The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone […]. Scribes, illuminators, and scholars held such stones directly over manuscript pages as an aid in seeing what was being written, drawn, or read.

   Slimming aids include dietary supplements and appetite suppressants.

4. (countable, British) An historical subsidy granted to the crown by Parliament for an extraordinary purpose, such as a war effort.
   • 2019, Julia Boffey, Henry VII's London in the Great Chronicle, page 71:

     In this parliament was granted to the king for defence against the Scots two aids and two quindecims, the which two aids did not extend over two quindecims.

5. (countable, British) An exchequer loan.
6. (countable, law) A pecuniary tribute paid by a vassal to his feudal lord on special occasions.
7. (countable) Alternative form of aide (“an aide-de-camp”)
   • Robert Michael Wills, They Came from the Drain (page 206)

     Suddenly, the general's aid entered the room and walked in a straight line, coming to a halt in front of the desk, standing at attention, waiting for the general to recognize him, allowing the aid to speak.

8. (countable, chiefly in the plural, horse racing) The rider's use of hands, legs, voice, etc. to control the horse.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English aiden, from Old French eider, aider, aidier, from Latin adiuto, frequentative of adiuvō (“assist”, verb).

Verb

aid (third-person singular simple present aids, present participle aiding, simple past and past participle aided)

1. (transitive) To provide support to; to further the progress of; to help; to assist.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     You speedy helpers […] Appear and aid me in this enterprise.

   • 2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, in The Onion AV Club‎:

     Smith is aided in his quest by an elfin, time-jumping alien with psychic powers played by another Coen brothers veteran, A Serious Man star Michael Stuhlbarg.

2. (climbing) To climb with the use of aids such as pitons.
   • 1979, American Alpine Journal, page 193:

     Rather than climb into a bottomless off-width crack, we aided an 80-foot A2 to A3 crack to the top of a pedestal. By very tenuous face climbing, we gained entry to the crack, which we followed to a tree beneath the big chimney.

Synonyms

• assist
• befriend
• bestand
• cooperate
• help
• promote
• relieve
• succor
• support
• sustain
• See also Thesaurus:help or Thesaurus:serve

Derived terms

Related terms

• aidant
• aide-de-camp

Translations

Anagrams

• -iad, Adi, DIA, Dai, Dia, I'd-a, I'da, IAD, Ida, Ida., dai, dia-

Azerbaijani

Etymology

From Arabic عَائِد (ʕāʔid).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑˈid/

• Audio (Baku)

  (file)

Postposition

aid + dative

1. related to, relating to, having to do with
2. concerning, about

Related terms

• aidiyyət

References

• “aid” in Obastan.com.

Bau

Noun

aid

1. woman

Further reading

• Hans van der Meer, Bau Organized Phonology Data

Ludian

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *aita.

Noun

aid

1. fence

Panim

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʔaɪɗ/

Noun

aid

1. woman

Further reading

• Panim Talking Dictionary

Veps

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *aita.

Noun

aid

1. fence

Inflection

Derived terms

• aidverai

References

• Zajceva, N. G., Mullonen, M. I. (2007) “забор, изгородь, ограда”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary]‎, Petrozavodsk: Periodika

Võro

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *aita.

Noun

aid (genitive aia, partitive aida)

1. garden

Inflection