endow

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English endouen, earlier also indowen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman endouer,^{[5][3][6][7][8]} which is formed from en- (“in, towards”) and douer (“to endow, give as a gift”),^[9][8][4] from Latin dōtō (“to endow, provide with a dowry”),^[10][4] from dōs (“marriage portion, dowry”),^[9][10][3] from Proto-Indo-European *dō- (“to give”).^[9][5] The Latin noun is related to dō (“to give”).^[6][7] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1379,^[11] and the OED calls endouer a legal word of the 15th century, treating the English verb as en- added to French douer.^[12] The Middle English verb was also confused with endeuen, from Old French enduir, the source of endue.^[2][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To provide someone with property or an income: a 1375 award records that Thomas Blount hath indowed Dame Isabell Bardolfe with a third part of a manor.^[2][3] Etymonline likewise dates the word to the late 14th century,^[9] while the OED, not fully revised for this entry, starts at before 1420.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant giving property or a livelihood,^[2][3] and Hoad dates that sense of enriching with property to the 14th century, two centuries before the sense of providing a dower.^[6] The OED records the sense of giving a permanent income, by bequest or gift, to a person, society or institution from about 1440.^[12] Figurative use followed quickly: to furnish someone with a gift, quality or power of mind or body is dated 1402 by Barnhart and before 1420, in Hoccleve, by the OED.^[3][12] The legal sense of providing dower for a widow appears in a translation of Littleton's Tenures of 1528–30,^[12] and giving a dowry to a woman, closest to the Latin, is recorded only from before 1634 to 1767.^[12] Later senses may owe something to endue, with which the verb was confused: Weekley thought so,^[13] and the OED suspects it behind Caxton's use for putting on garments (1484).^[12] Johnson (1755) gave four senses: to enrich with a portion, to supply with external goods, to enrich with any excellence, and to be the fortune of someone, the last from Cymbeline.^[14] Investing someone with a quality in the imagination is recorded from 1888.^[12]

Timeline

• 1375 – to provide someone with property, in the form indowed.^[2][3] The form endouwen follows about 1390.^[3][2]
• 1402 – to furnish with a quality or talent;^[3] the OED has this from before 1420.^[12]
• c. 1440 – to give a permanent income to a person or institution.^[12]
• 1477 – to give as a dowry, figuratively (obsolete).^[12]
• 1484 – to put on garments, a confusion with endue.^[12]
• 1528 – to provide dower for a widow.^[12]
• 1601 – to invest with privileges.^[12]
• before 1634 – to give a dowry to a woman (obsolete by 1767).^[12]
• 1888 – to invest someone imaginatively with a quality.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To provide a person or an institution with a permanent income, or to establish a post or prize by giving the funds for it: The brewer's widow endowed a chair of botany at the college.^[15][4][7]
2. To provide someone with a quality or ability, usually followed by with: Her parents had endowed her with a quick wit. In the passive, especially well endowed, to have talent or favourable qualities.^[15][4][7]
3. To enrich or enhance something, usually followed by with.^[4]
4. To think of someone as having a quality, usually a favourable one: Patients may endow a doctor with powers no doctor has.^[4][12][7]
5. To invest with a privilege.^[12][7]
6. (law) To provide dower for a widow.^[12][7]
7. (obsolete, before 1634–1767) To give a dowry to a woman.^[12][15][4]

Word family

• endower
• disendow
• reendow
• endowment
• unendowed
• well-endowed

Related words

• dowager
• dower
• dowry
• endue

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins