endowment

plural endowments · alternative indowment

1. countableuncountableSomething with which a person or thing is endowed.

   We must not, in opening our schools to everyone, confuse the idea that all should have equal chance with the notion that all have equal endowments.

   1958, Adlai Stevenson, Speech to the United Parents Association

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   I suppose it is a truth too well attested to you, to need a proof here, that we are a race of beings, who have long labored under the abuse and censure of the world; that we have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt; and that we have long been considered rather as brutish than human, and scarcely capable of mental endowments.

   1791, Benjamin Banneker, Letter to Thomas Jefferson on racism and slavery (19 August 1791)

   Thus it was with Henrietta. She knew more of the world than most women of her years; for her converse had been chiefly with her uncle, a man of remarkable endowments: and she had read an infinite variety of book—read them, too, with that quick perception which seizes motive and meaning with intuitive accuracy.

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Age and Youth”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 8

   […] the woman with larger-than-usual breasts will be initially perceived only as a sex object if she doesn't take steps to disguise her endowment.

   1980, Ray Broadus Browne, Rituals and ceremonies in popular culture, page 230

   What is … important is that we — number one: Learn to live with each other. Number two: try to bring out the best in each other. The best from the best, and the best from those who, perhaps, might not have the same endowment.

   1985 May 11, Jonas Salk, Interview on, The Open Mind

   Tami also had huge breasts, and every teenage boy wanted to touch them. […] Tami, knowing she was not beautiful, used her endowment to great advantage.

   2006, Natalie R. Collins, Wives and Sisters, page 54

   Synonyms: gift

2. countableuncountableProperty or funds invested for the support and benefit of a person or not-for-profit institution.

   1932, Robert Clarkson Clothier, after assuming the presidency of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey I seem to see a great university, great in endowment, in land, in buildings, in equipment, but greater still, second to none, in its practical idealism, and its social usefulness.

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   Not content with the natural neglect into which Sight Recognition was falling, they began boldly to demand the legal prohibition of all "monopolizing and aristocratic Arts" and the consequent abolition of all endowments for the studies of Sight Recognition, Mathematics, and Feeling.

   1884, Edwin Abbott Abbott, in chapter 8 of his novella Flatland

   Investors face a quandary. Cash offers a return of virtually zero in many developed countries; government-bond yields may have risen in recent weeks but they are still unattractive. Equities have suffered two big bear markets since 2000 and are wobbling again. It is hardly surprising that pension funds, insurers and endowments are searching for new sources of return.

   2013 July 6, “The rise of smart beta”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8843, page 68

3. countableuncountablebusinessEndowment assurance or pure endowment.
4. MormonismcountableuncountableA ceremony designed to prepare participants for their role in the afterlife.