mendicancy

noun

1. the practice of begging, as for alms.
2. the state or condition of being a beggar.

n.“state or condition of beggary,” 1790, from mendicant + -cy. Also in this sense was mendicity (c.1400), from Old French mendicité “begging,” from Latin mendicitatem (nominative mendicitas) “beggary, mendicity.”