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doto

Etymology and origin of the Latin word doto

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
Ultimate origin
Latin (dōs)

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈdoː.toː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈdɔː.to][1]

Forms

dōtō (present infinitive dōtāre, perfect active dōtāvī, supine dōtātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from dōs “dowry” with the verb suffix -ō.[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short call the finite verb rare and perhaps not ante-Augustan, and cite Virgil and Suetonius.[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant to provide with a dowry, endow, and with an ablative to dower with something, as Apuleius.[2] Suetonius says Vespasian married off his daughter and dowered her splendidly, and Virgil's Juno tells Lavinia she will be dowered with Trojan and Rutulian blood.[4][5] The glosses equate it with the Greek for giving a dowry.[3]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant to endow.[6] It survives in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese dotare, dotar, and French douer.[1] English dowry came about 1400 through Anglo-French from Medieval Latin dōtārium, from dōtāre.[7]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil has dōtābere.[4][8]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of dowering a daughter.[4][8]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it with an ablative.[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To provide with a dowry, endow.[2][4]

Word family

  • indōtātus

Usage notes

Dōtō, genitive Dōtūs, is also the name of a sea-nymph in Virgil.[4][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Doto.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/doto. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·