dowry

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

From Middle English dowarye, dowerie, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl]  dowarie, douarie, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French douaire, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl]  dōtārium, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin dōs.

Pronunciation

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

Antonyms

• dower
• bride price

Hypernyms

• marriage portion

Related terms

• reverse dowry
• dowager
• endow

Translations

property or payment given at time of marriage

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

  Egyptian Arabic: مهر m (mahr)

• Armenian: օժիտ (hy) (ōžit)
• Bulgarian: зестра (bg) f (zestra)
• Catalan: dot (ca) f
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: věno (cs) n
• Danish: medgift c
• Dutch: bruidsschat (nl) m
• Egyptian: (grgt)
• Esperanto: doto
• Finnish: myötäjäiset (fi) pl
• French: dot (fr) f
• 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: נדוניה (he) f (n'dúnya)
• Hindi: दहेज़ m (dahez), जहेज़ m (jahez)
• 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 (じさんきん, jisankin)
• Korean: 지참금 (ko) (jichamgeum) (持參金 (ko))
• Kurdish: ,
• Kyrgyz: сеп (ky) (sep)
• Latin: dōs (la) f
• Latvian: pūrs (lv) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Luxembourgish: Dott f
• Macedonian: мираз m (miraz), чеиз m (čeiz), приќе n (priḱe)
• Malay: mahar, mas kahwin
• Maori: reperepe, tāpākūhā
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: medgift m or f

  Nynorsk: medgift f

• Polish: posag (pl) m, wiano (pl) n
• Portuguese: dote (pt) m
• Rajasthani: देज
• Romanian: zestre (ro)
• Russian: прида́ное (ru) n (pridánoje)
• Serbo-Croatian:

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

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

• Slovak: veno n
• Sotho: lobola
• Spanish: dote (es) m or f
• Swahili: mahari (sw)
• Swedish: hemgift (sv) c
• Tagalog: bigay-kaya, ubad
• Telugu: కట్నం (te) (kaṭnaṁ)
• Turkish: çeyiz (tr), başlık (tr), drahoma (tr) (for Jews and Christians in Turkey)
• Urdu: جہیز m (jahez), دہیز m (dahez)
• Vietnamese: của hồi môn
• Volapük: jigamagivot (vo)
• Welsh: agweddi
• Westrobothnian:
• Yiddish: נדן m (nadn)
• Zulu: ilobolo class 5/6

Verb

dowry (third-person singular simple present dowr, present participle ies, 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