Look up sinecure in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
A sinecure (/ˈsɪnɪkjʊər/ or /ˈsaɪnɪkjʊər/; from the Latinsine, 'without', and cura, 'care') is a position with a salary or otherwise generating income that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval church, where it signified a post without any responsibility for the "cure [care] of souls", the regular liturgical and pastoral functions of a cleric, but came to be applied to any post, secular or ecclesiastical, that involved little or no actual work. Sinecures have historically provided a potent tool for governments or monarchs to distribute patronage, while recipients are able to store up titles and easy salaries.
Other ecclesiastical sinecures were certain cathedral dignities to which no spiritual functions attached or incumbencies where by reason of depopulation and the like, the parishioners disappeared or the parish church was allowed to decay. Such cases eventually ceased to exist.[4]
The term is also used of any office or place to which salary, emoluments, or dignity, but no duties, are attached. The British civil service and the royal household, for example, were loaded with innumerable offices which, by lapse of time, had become sinecures and were only kept as the reward of political services or to secure voting power in parliament. They were prevalent in the 18th century, but were gradually abolished by statutes during that and the following centuries.[5]
Current usage
Below is a list of extant sinecures by country.[6]
United Kingdom
Positions associated with membership of the Privy Council/Cabinet
^Cf. M. Guasco, Storia del clero, Laterza (1997), p.20
^This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sinecure". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 147; see last three sentences. The British civil service and royal household were loaded.....
^As extracted from Lord Mackay of Clashfern (ed.) (2002) Halsbury's Laws of England, 4th ed. Vol.14.
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