dotation

English

Etymology

From Middle English dotacion, from Late Latin dotatio, from Latin dōtāre (“to endow”). By surface analysis, dotate +‎ -ion. In sense 3, borrowed from French dotation, ultimately from the same origin.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /doʊˈteɪʃən/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /də(ʊ)ˈteɪʃn/

Noun

dotation (countable and uncountable, plural dotations)

1. (literary, rare) The act of dotating or bestowing something; endowment, or an instance of this.
   • 1605, Francis Bacon, “The Second Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC, folios 3, recto – 3, verso:

     Neyther is it to bee forgotten, that this dedicating of Foundations and Dotations to profeſſory Learning, hath not onely had a Maligne aſpect, and influence vpon the growth of Scyences, but hath alſo been preiudiciall to States and gouernments.

   • 1765, William Blackstone, “Of Corporations”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book I (Of the Rights of Persons), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 469:

     As to eleemoſynary corporations, by the dotation the founder and his heirs are of common right the legal viſitors, to ſee that that property is rightly employed, which would otherwiſe have deſcended to the viſitor himſelf: […]

   • 1851 April, “Monthly Record of Current Events”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume II, number XI, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 704, column 2:

     The Minister of Finance presented the bill asking for a dotation for the President. The question was an embarrassing one for the Assembly. If they granted it, it would be giving additional power to him. If they refused, he would become an object of sympathy, and still gain power.

   • 1901, Henry Charles Lea, The Moriscos of Spain; Their Conversion and Expulsion, London: Bernard Quaritch, page 169:

     Interminable debates followed as to whether the matter should be entrusted to one supreme commissioner or whether each bishopric should have its own, and what should be their functions and powers; also as to the sources from which the dotations of the rectories and the pay of the preachers should be drawn, together with numerous other details.

   • 1941, Virginia Prewett, quoting Manuel Ávila Camacho, Reportage on Mexico, New York, N.Y.: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., translation of original in Spanish, page 190:

     I declare that the substantial conquests in the dotation of land to the workmen of the field and the guarantees given in favor of the workmen and labor unions should be the basis of our economic organization.

   • 1947, Josephus Daniels, Shirt-Sleeve Diplomat, Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, pages 202–203:

     In 1936 President [Lázaro] Cárdenas expropriated thousands of acres, gave it to the peons, and provided loans and machinery so that they could work it to advantage. That dotation was widely criticized and defended.

   • 2011, Douglas Richardson, edited by Kimball G. Everingham, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd edition, volume I, →ISBN, page 316:

     In 1396 he and his wife, Alice, sued Elizabeth, widow of John Sergeaux, for one third of the manor of Tywardreath, Cornwall and others lands, it being the dower of the said Alice of the dotation of Alice's former husband, Ralph Carminow, Knt.

2. (historical, usually italicized) A grant of revenues from territory conquered by the French Empire (c. 1804–1814).
   • 1966, David Stacton, The Bonapartes, New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, page 34:

     Jérôme [Napoléon Bonaparte] gave the dotations away to favorites. […] Dotations were the revenues, but almost invariably not the source from which such sums were drawn, settled by a ruling monarch upon those delegated to represent his authority, in order that they might maintain both their clerical staff, if they had one, and the proper splendor of their office. They took the form of such things as one-tenth the profits from farming the tobacco tax, a lien against postal charges, the privilege of selling certain offices, or hearth money. They were an inevitable source of personal and administrative corruption.

Related terms

• dotate

 

Further reading

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “dotation, n.”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
• “dotation”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “dotation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• dotation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

From Latin dotātiōnem.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

dotation f (plural dotations)

1. allowance
2. endowment

Related terms

• doter
• douer

Further reading

• “dotation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Noun

dotation

1. Alternative form of dotacion