different between bequest vs endowment

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English biqueste, bequeste (“will, testament, bequest”), from be +? -quiste, queste (“saying, utterance, testament, will, legacy”), from Old English *cwist, *cwiss (“saying”) (compare Old English andcwiss, ?ecwis, uncwisse, etc.), from Proto-Germanic *kwissiz (“saying”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?et- (“to say”). Related to Old English andcwiss (“answer, reply”), Old English uncwisse (“dumb, mute”), Middle English bequethen (“to bequeath”). More at quoth, bequeath.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b??kw?st/

Noun

bequest (plural bequests)

1. The act of bequeathing or leaving by will.
2. The transfer of property upon the owner's death according to the will of the deceased.
3. That which is left by will; a legacy.
4. That which has been handed down or transmitted.
5. A person's inheritance; an amount of property given by will.

Synonyms

• bequeathal
• legacy
• gift
• donation

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English biquesten, from the noun (see above).

Verb

bequest (third-person singular simple present bequests, present participle bequesting, simple past and past participle bequested)

1. (transitive) To give as a bequest; bequeath.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English endowement; equivalent to endow +? -ment.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: ?n-dou?m?nt, ?n-, IPA^(key): /?n?da?m?nt/, /?n?da?m?nt/
• (US) enPR: ?n-dou?m?nt, ?n-, IPA^(key): /?n?da?m?nt/, /?n?da?m?nt/

Noun

endowment (plural endowments)

1. Something with which a person or thing is endowed.
   • 1791, Benjamin Banneker, Letter to Thomas Jefferson on racism and slavery (19 August 1791):

     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.

   • 1958, Adlai Stevenson, Speech to the United Parents Association:

     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.

   • 1985, Jonas Salk, Interview on The Open Mind (11 May 1985):

     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.
2. Property or funds invested for the support and benefit of a person or not-for-profit institution.
   • 1884, Edwin Abbott Abbott, in chapter 8 of his novella Flatland:

     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.

   • 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.
3. (insurance) Endowment assurance or pure endowment.
4. (Mormonism) A ceremony designed to prepare participants for their role in the afterlife.

Synonyms

• (something with which a person or thing is endowed): gift

Derived terms

• endowment mortgage

Related terms

• endow

Translations

Middle English

Noun

endowment

1. Alternative form of endowement