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8 wordies list
tontine |
(n): a form of life insurance whereby on the death or default of a participant his share is distributed to the remaining members
(n): insurance paid to named beneficiaries when the insured person dies
(n): an annuity scheme wherein participants share certain benefits and on the death of any participant his benefits are redistributed among the remaining participants; can run for a fixed period of time or until the death of all but one participant
(n): income from capital investment paid in a series of regular payments
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tONtinE
Probably gave rise to the term "green-back stabber."
"…a macabre form of investment, popular in Europe and America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in which the amount you got back depended on how many of your fellow-investors you outlived."
Michael Kinsley in The New Yorker
Pronounced: "TAHN-TEEN."
"A system of annuities in which the benefits pass to the surviving subscribers until only one is left."
I saw this first referenced on an old M*A*S*H episode when Col. Potter received a well-traveled bottle of brandy as the last surviving member of his World War One platoon. I believe Major Winchester used the phrase to add some pompous color to the scene to which Col. Potter nodded his rapidly aging head and remarked, "Give that man a charoot."
JC Sears (on MyFavoriteWord.com)
Or to many of us, the plot entered into by Mr. Burns and Grandpa during WWII.
Popularly, in mystery plots, a sort of group-will scheme by which the last surviving member inherits all.