dower

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English douere, also dowere,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman dower and Old French douaire, also doaire,^[6][3][7][8] from Medieval Latin dōtārium,^[2][9][8][4] from dōtō (“to endow, portion”),^[8][4][10] from dōs (“marriage portion, gift”),^[2][8][4] from Proto-Indo-European *do- (“to give”),^[2][7] the source of dō (“to give”).^[8][4] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1136–37.^[11] Dowry is from a separate Anglo-Norman form, Anglo-Norman dowarie.^[12][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

An endowment or gift, figuratively: about 1375, in the Myrour of Lewed Men.^[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to the 14th century,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1250–1300.^[13] Etymonline dates the English word to the mid-15th century, with Anglo-French use from the late 13th.^[7]

Semantic evolution

All three main senses were established by the mid-15th century: besides the figurative gift, a dowry in Chaucer's Clerk's Tale (about 1386),^[6] and the widow's share of her late husband's estate in a will of 1439.^[6] The Wycliffite Bible (1382) also uses it for what a man gave to his bride's relatives for her, a transferred sense that lasted until 1791.^[6] From this legal sense come tenant in dower, a widow holding such land,^[6] and the later dower house, a smaller house on an estate meant as a widow's home.^[8] According to the SOED the legal sense is now historical.^[8] The verb is first recorded with its current meaning before 1616, in King Lear,^[6] which Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates to 1605,^[3] and the SOED already has it in the late 15th century.^[8] Its figurative sense, to endow with a talent or power, is from Southey (1793).^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1375 – an endowment or gift, figuratively.^[6]
• 1382 – money or value given by a man to his bride's relatives (obsolete by 1791).^[6]
• c. 1386 – the money or property a wife brings to her husband.^[6]
• 1439 – a widow's portion of her late husband's estate.^[6]
• before 1616 – verb, to give a dowry to.^[6]
• 1793 – verb, to endow with a talent or power.^[6]
• 1814 – verb, to give as a dower.^[6]
• 1848 – verb, intransitive, to take or receive dower.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law, historical) The part of a dead man's real estate that the law allows his widow for her life: On his death she kept the farm in dower.^[9][3][6][8]
2. (archaic) A dowry.^[9][3][8]
3. A natural gift or talent.^[9][3][6][8]

Verb

1. To give a dowry to.^[3][6][8]
2. To endow with a talent or gift: Nature had dowered her with patience.^[9][3][6][8]
3. To give something as a dower.^[6]

Word family

• dowerless
• undowered

Related words

• dowager
• dower house
• dowry
• endow
• date

Usage notes

In ordinary literal use dower is the widow's life share of her husband's property and dowry the portion a bride brings to her husband, but in poetic use dower often stands for dowry, and either can be applied figuratively to talents; so Fowler, as quoted by Etymonline.^[7] The OED also has a separate obsolete noun dower, a burrow of rabbits or the like, recorded from before 1398 to 1490, perhaps from French; it compares Old French douvre.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House