Home › Words › S › subsistersubsistersubsister · noun — one who subsists.Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).EtymologyFrom subsist + -er.nounOne who subsists.e.g.“a race of disobedient children, a progeny of beggars, a nation of bare subsisters on the soil” — 1843, Andrew Clarke, Tour in France, Italy and Switzerland: During the Years 1840 and 1841, page 25:Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).