A woman who receives or is endowed with a dowry; a wife with reference to her dotal property (archaic legal term).
From Medieval Latin 'dotaria', feminine form of 'dotarius', related to 'dos' (dowry). This specialized legal vocabulary emerged through Norman-French influence on English property law.
This term is so gendered and outdated it's almost extinct—it reveals how women were legally defined by their property in marriage, which is why this vocabulary disappeared as property rights evolved.
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