dowry

Etymology

From Middle English dowarye, dowerie, from Anglo-Norman dowarie, douarie, from Old French douaire, from Medieval Latin dōtārium, from Latin dōs.

noun

1. Payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage.
2. (less common) Payment by the groom or his family to the bride's family: bride price.
   The family of the groom makes sure the new couple has a house to live in and land to cultivate; they will also pay for the dowry (crucial, for without dowry the new father has no rights over his children; Trouwborst 1962: 136ff.) 2009, Peter Uvin, Life after Violence: A People's Story of Burundi, page 125
3. (obsolete) Dower.
4. A natural gift or talent.

verb

1. To bestow a dowry upon.
   1999, Judith Everard, Michael C. E. Jones, Charters Duchess Constance Br, page xvi:
   2013, Noreen Giffney, Margrit Shildrick, Theory on the Edge: Irish Studies and the Politics of Sexual Difference, page 62:
   1976, Graham Anderson, Studies in Lucian's Comic Fiction, Page 19 1911, Aida Rodman De Milt, Ways and Days Out of London, page 108