Etymology From Middle French munificence, from Latin munificentia, from munus (“gift”) + facio (“to make”).
1
Usually The quality of being munificent; generosity.
Now the happy king laid the forehead of thankſgiving upon the duſt of gratitude; he opened the doors of his wealth to the four winds, and enriched the world, at once, with his munificence.1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page 3:
And surely, no form of munificence should entitle to a more grateful and lasting remembrance, than that which promotes the right education of youth;...1845, Lydia Sigourney, Scenes in my Native Land, The Great Oak of Geneseo, pages 86–87:
Untill that Locrine for his Realmes defence, Did head against them make and strong munificence1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC: