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endow

/ɪnˈdaʊ/ verb

Latin root: dōtāre Wiktionary

verb Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about endow at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

  1. Give qualities or abilities to.
  2. Furnish with an endowment.
    When she got married, she got dowered

Origin

From Late Middle English endowen, endouen, enduen, indouen, indw (“to provide with assets, a livelihood, or privileges; to bestow, grant; (figuratively) to favour; to endow”), from Anglo-Norman endouer, from Old French en- (prefix meaning ‘in, into’) + douer (“to endow”) (from Latin dōtāre (present active infinitive of dōtō (“to endow”)); modern French douer). Dōtō is derived from dōs (“dowry; endowment, gift”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- (“to give”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)