dowry

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdaʊəɹi/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdaʊɹi/
• Rhymes: -aʊəɹi, -aʊɹi

Noun

dowry (countable and uncountable, plural dowries)

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.
   • 2009, Peter Uvin, Life after Violence: A People's Story of Burundi, page 125:

     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.)

3. (obsolete) Dower.
4. A natural gift or talent.
5. (informal) A large amount.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of E. M. Forster to this entry?)

   But no palace had so fair a ceiling; for from the wooden beams were suspended a whole dowry of copper vessels—pails, cauldrons, water pots, of every colour from lustrous black to the palest pink.

Antonyms

• dower
• bride price

Hypernyms

• marriage-portion

Hyponyms

• (bride price): lobola

Related terms

• dowry death
• reverse dowry
• dowager
• endow

Translations

property or payment given at time of marriage

• Afrikaans: bruidsprys, lobola (af)
• Albanian: pajë (sq), prikë (sq)
• Ancient Greek: προίξ (proíx)
• Arabic: دُوطَة f (dūṭa), مَهْر m (mahr) (Islamic mahr)

  Egyptian Arabic: مهر m (mahr)

• Armenian: օժիտ (hy) (ōžit)
• Azerbaijani: cehiz (az)
• Belarusian: паса́г m (pasáh), выпра́ва f (vypráva), ве́на n (vjéna) (historical)
• Bengali: যৌতুক (bn) (jōutuk)
• Breton: argouroù (br) pl
• Bulgarian: зе́стра (bg) f (zéstra), при́дан (bg) m (prídan), чеи́з (bg) m (čeíz), вено́ n (venó), ве́но n (véno)
• Burmese: ခန်းဝင်ပစ္စည်း (my) (hkan:wangpaccany:)
• Catalan: dot (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 嫁妝／嫁妆 (zh) (jiàzhuāng), 陪嫁 (zh) (péijià), 陪送 (zh) (péisong), 妝奩／妆奁 (zh) (zhuānglián)

• Czech: věno (cs) n
• Danish: medgift c
• Dutch: bruidsschat (nl) m
• Egyptian: (grgt f)
• Esperanto: doto
• Estonian: kaasavara
• Finnish: myötäjäiset (fi) pl
• French: dot (fr) f
• Galician: dote (gl) m
• Georgian: მზითევი (mzitevi)
• German: Aussteuer (de) f; Mitgift (de) f, Brautschatz m
• Greek: προίκα (el) f (proíka)

  Ancient: προίξ f (proíx), φερνή f (phernḗ)

• Hebrew: נְדוּנְיָה (he) f (n'dúnya)
• Hindi: दहेज़ m (dahez), जहेज़ m (jahez), महर (hi) m (mahar) (Islamic mahr)
• Hungarian: hozomány (hu)
• Ido: doto (io), doario (io)
• Indonesian: mas kawin, mahar (id)
• Irish: coibhche f, crodh m, spré f
• Italian: dote (it) f
• Japanese: 持参金 (ja) (じさんきん, jisankin)
• Kannada: ವರದಕ್ಷಿಣೆ (kn) (varadakṣiṇe)
• Kazakh: жасау (kk) (jasau)
• Khmer: ជំនូន (km) (cumnuun)
• Korean: 지참금(持參金) (ko) (jichamgeum), 혼수(婚需) (ko) (honsu)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: next (ku) m, qelen (ku) m, cihêz (ku)

• Kyrgyz: сеп (ky) (sep)
• Latin: dōs (la) f, marītāgium n
• Latvian: pūrs (lv) m
• Lithuanian: kraitis m
• Luxembourgish: Dott f
• Macedonian: мираз m (miraz), чеиз m (čeiz), приќе n (priḱe)
• Malay: mahar, mas kahwin (ms)
• Malayalam: സ്ത്രീധനം (ml) (strīdhanaṁ)
• Manchu: ᡶᡠᡩᡝᡥᡝ
  ᠵᠠᡴᠠ (fudehe jaka)
• Maori: reperepe, tāpākūhā
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: medgift m or f

  Nynorsk: medgift f

• Old East Slavic: вѣно n (věno)
• Persian: جهیزیه (fa) (jahiziyye), جهاز (fa) (jahâz), جهیز (fa) (jahiz), مهر (fa) (mahr) (Islamic mahr), کابین (fa) (kâbin)
• Plautdietsch: Brutpriess m
• Polabian: madgit m
• Polish: posag (pl) m, wiano (pl) n
• Portuguese: dote (pt) m
• Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi: ਦਾਜ m (dāj)

  Shahmukhi: داج m (dāj)

• Rajasthani: देज (dej)
• Romanian: zestre (ro), dotă (ro) f
• Russian: прида́ное (ru) n (pridánoje), ве́но (ru) n (véno) (historical)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: мираз m, вијено n, женинство n, прћија f

  Roman: miraz (sh) m, vijeno n, ženinstvo n, prćija f

• Slovak: veno n
• Slovene: dota (sl) f
• Sotho: lobola
• Spanish: dote (es) m or f
• Swahili: mahari (sw)
• Swedish: hemgift (sv) c
• Tagalog: bigay-kaya, ubad
• Tajik: ҷиҳоз (jihoz), маҳр (mahr) (Islamic mahr)
• Tamil: வரதட்சனை (varataṭcaṉai), சீதனம் (ta) (cītaṉam)
• Telugu: కట్నం (te) (kaṭnaṁ), వరకట్నం (te) (varakaṭnaṁ)
• Thai: สินสอด (th) (sǐn-sɔ̀ɔt)
• Turkish: çeyiz (tr), başlık (tr), drahoma (tr) (for Jews and Christians in Turkey)
• Ugaritic: 𐎎𐎅𐎗 (mhr)
• Ukrainian: по́саг m (pósah), ви́права f (výprava), випра́ва f (vypráva), при́дане n (prýdane), прида́не n (prydáne), ві́но n (víno) (historical), діви́зна f (divýzna) (archaic)
• Urdu: جہیز m (jahez), دہیز m (dahez), مہر m (mahr) (Islamic mahr)
• Uzbek: sep (uz), mahr (uz) (Islamic mahr)
• Vietnamese: của hồi môn
• Volapük: jigamagivot (vo)
• Welsh: gwaddol m, argyfrau pl (archaic), agweddi m (obsolete)
• Yiddish: נדן m (nadn)
• Zulu: ilobolo class 5/6

References

• (large amount): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Verb

dowry (third-person singular simple present dowries, present participle dowrying, simple past and past participle dowried)

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:
   • 1911, Aida Rodman De Milt, Ways and Days Out of London, page 108:

     1976, Graham Anderson, Studies in Lucian's Comic Fiction, Page 19

See also

• glory box
• hope chest
• trousseau

Anagrams

• rowdy, wordy

Middle English

Noun

dowry

1. Alternative form of dowarye