Other forms: endowed, endowing, endows
To endow is to give a lasting gift of money, or a natural gift. Endow a chair, endowed with patience, an endowed college.
The financial sense is precise: an endowment is invested and only the income spent, so the gift outlives the giver by centuries. The other sense is passive, and somebody endowed with a quality was born with it.
1verbendowTo give a lasting gift of money, or a natural gift.
“The businessman endowed the university with money for a new library.”
endow is a giving.
Old French endouer comes from Latin dotare, to provide a dowry, from dos, a gift.
Proto-Indo-European
*deh₃- — to give
Latin
dōtāre
Old French
en-
Anglo-Norman
endouer
Middle English
endowen
English, today
endow
Built from
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- + 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.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA