A Gift

We’ve all heard of the rich people of the world making endowments to universities or charities. These endowments add wings to hospitals or fund research projects or many other valuable things. Thus we all know that the word endowment is synonymous with the word gift. An endowment is a gift.

The prefix en means to put into or onto. The root of the word is endow which means “to equip or supply with a talent or quality.” The suffix ment means process of. Therefore the word literally means the process of putting a talent or quality into someone or something. But what is the most interesting thing about the word is its history or etymology. Endow comes from the Old French word douer which means to provide with a dowry. Therefore the gift the groom presented to the bride could be called an endowment.

When we put this together with the fact that throughout the scriptures Jesus Christ is symbolically the groom and his people are symbolically the bride, we gain a whole new feel for the word endowment.