Etymology

donatio mortis causa

Today it means: A deathbed gift: a future gift given in expectation of the donor's imminent death and only delivered upon the donor's death. Full definition →

Latin dōnātiō
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromdōnātiō“donation, gift”
  2. English todaydonatio mortis causa

From Latin dōnātiō (“donation, gift”) + mortis (“death”) + causā (“on account of”, postposition). Literally a gift on account of (one's) death.

Words from the same roots

Latindōnātiō all →

donationdonatio inter vivos

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.