Origin: Latin suffix -sion
Pension has 4 different meanings across 2 categories:
a regular payment to a person that is intended to allow them to subsist without working
"After retiring from his thirty-year career, he finally received his pension and could afford to travel the world."
An annuity paid regularly as benefit due to a retired employee, serviceman etc. in consideration of past services, originally and chiefly by a government but also by various private pension schemes.
"After thirty years at the factory, he finally collected his monthly pension from the state."
In plain English: A pension is money that people receive after they retire to help pay for their living expenses.
"She plans to retire early so she can live comfortably on her pension."
Usage: Use "pension" to refer to the regular income provided to someone who has stopped working, such as a retiree receiving funds from their employer or the government. Do not confuse this noun with the verb form meaning to care for someone tenderly, which is spelled differently.
grant a pension to
"After retiring from his thirty-year career as an engineer, the company agreed to grant him a generous monthly pension."
To grant a pension to.
"The government decided to grant a pension to every veteran who served during the war."
In plain English: To pension someone means to give them money so they can live comfortably after they stop working.
"The company decided to pension off its oldest employees with a generous retirement package."
Usage: As a verb, to pension means to provide regular payments or benefits to someone who has retired or is disabled. Use this term specifically when describing an organization or government granting financial support rather than simply paying a salary.
The word "pension" comes from the Latin pensiō, which originally meant a payment or weight. It entered English through Old French and Anglo-Norman as a regular sum of money paid to someone, such as an employee after retirement.