dotation

plural dotations

1. countableliteraryrareuncountableThe act of dotating or bestowing something; endowment, or an instance of this.

   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.

   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

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   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.

   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

   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: […]

   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

   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.

   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

   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.

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

   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.

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

2. countablehistoricaluncountableusually italicizedA grant of revenues from territory conquered by the French Empire (c. 1804–1814).

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   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.

   1966, David Stacton, The Bonapartes, New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, page 34