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Dower vs Endow vs Endue

Dower, endow, endue are comparable when meaning to furnish or provide with a gift.

Dower specifically denotes the provision of the dowry which a woman brings to a husband in marriage. It may also imply the bestowal of a gift, talent, or good quality.

Endow in its basic sense implies the bestowing of money or property on a person or institution for its support or maintenance.

Like dower it may be extended to the giving of any good thing, often with a suggestion of enhancing or enriching the recipient.

Endue may mean to clothe or invest with something (as a garment, a dignity, a right, or a possession).

Endue has become so confused with endow in its extended sense of to bestow upon one a faculty, power, or other spiritual or mental gift that it is difficult to trace any differences in meaning between the two words.

But endow in precise use usually implies a permanent enriching, and endue an investing or clothing (either temporarily or permanently) with a specific quality or character.