Serving : nf (word from latin portion).
A serving is a Part which belongs to someone.
Tiny portion: Minimal resources, just enough – A very small amount.
Among the many taxes paid by peasants in the past (around the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries), there was the tithe, a tax which was intended for the clergy.
High-ranking clergymen redistributed only a very small part of it as salaries to the lower clergy.
The parish priests, in order to survive, therefore benefited from two additional incomes: – the incidental, representing the offerings made by the parishioners; – the minimal portion, a pension that the noble of the place paid to the priest who officiated in his parish.
But as the latter was of little importance and the whole was generally barely sufficient for the priest who received it to be able to make a decent living from it, it quickly became a symbol of very low incomes.
Half-portion: Colloquial and pejorative: A small, insignificant person (who would only be entitled to half a portion or a meal).
Half portions.
Go on, hey, half a portion!