Dowry

A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment by the groom, or his family, to the bride, or her family, dowry is the wealth transferred from the bride, or her family, to the groom, or his family. Similarly, dower is the property settled on the bride herself, by the groom at the time of marriage, and which remains under her ownership and control.

Quotes

• Formosa virgo est; dotis dimidium vocant
  Isti, qui dotes neglegunt uxorias.
  • The girl is pretty; this is half a dowry, say men who aren't interested in a dowry.
  • Lucius Afranius, unassigned fragment; A Book of Latin Quotations (1966), p. 47

• At Sestos, Hero dwelt; Hero the faire,
  Whom young Apollo courted for her haire,
  And offred as a dower his burning throne,
  Where she should sit for men to gaze upon.
  • Christopher Marlowe, Hero and Leander, I, 5–8

• What say you to the lady? Love’s not love
  When it is mingled with regards that stands
  Aloof from th’ entire point. Will you have her?
  She is herself a dowry.
  • William Shakespeare, King Lear, I, i, 278

• He hath taken her by the left shoulder,
    Says, ‘Dame, where lies thy dowry?’—
  ‘O it’s east and west yon wan water side,
    And it’s down by the banks of the Airlie.’
  • Anonymous, The Bonnie House o’ Airlie, st. 5