skill in securing grants, as for research, from federal agencies, foundations, or the like
Word origin
[1960–65, Amer.; grant + -s3 + -manship]This word is first recorded in the period 1960–65. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: Pap test, bicycle kick, buyback, disco, parvovirus-s an ending marking nouns as plural (boys; wolves), occurring also on nouns that have no singular (dregs; entrails; pants; scissors), or on nouns that have a singular with a different meaning (clothes; glasses; manners; thanks). The pluralizing value of -s is weakened or lost in a number of nouns that now often take singular agreement,as the names of games (billiards; checkers; tiddlywinks) and of diseases (measles; mumps; pox; rickets); the latter use has been extended to create informal names for a variety of involuntaryconditions, physical or mental (collywobbles; giggles; hots; willies). A parallel set of formations, where -s has no plural value, are adjectives denoting socially unacceptable or inconvenientstates (bananas; bonkers; crackers; nuts; preggers; starkers)