different between endowment vs predilection

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

English

Alternative forms

• prædilection (archaic)

Etymology

Borrowed from French prédilection.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?i?.d??l?k.?n?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?p??.d??l?k.?n?/
• Rhymes: -?k??n

Noun

predilection (countable and uncountable, plural predilections)

1. A condition of favoring or liking; a tendency towards; proclivity; predisposition.
   • 1967, Flann O’Brien, The Third Policeman, ch. 2,

     A row of houses he regards as a row of necessary evils. The softening and degeneration of the human race he attributes to its progressive predilection for interiors and waning interest in the art of going out and staying there.

   • 1987, Edwin M. Yoder Jr., "Lewis Powell a Fine Sense of Balance," Washington Post, 29 Jun.,

     But for him the first rule of judging was to set aside personal predilection and vote the law and the facts.

   • 2000, Terry McCarthy, "Lost Generation," Time Asia, 23 Oct.,

     ... youth’s predilection for revolt.

   • 2001, Marina Cantacuzino, "On deadly ground," The Guardian, 13 Mar.,

     Wilson doesn’t see any inconsistency between his socialism and his predilection for the high life.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:predilection

Translations