2012_03_14 dowager n. 皇太后 one of elevated social position

Word of the Day for Wednesday, March 14, 2012
dowager \DOU-uh-jer\, noun:
1. An elderly woman of stately dignity, especially one of elevated social position.
2. A woman who holds some title or property from her deceased husband, especially the widow of a king, duke, etc.
adjective:
1. Noting, pertaining to, or characteristic of a dowager:
Deeda Blair rhapsodized about the exquisite atmosphere of La Grenouille and La Caravelle, two of the leading temples of fine French cuisine, where she’d lunch with the dowager philanthropist Mary Lasker or the ubiquitous Nan Kempner in the early 1960s, when her husband, William McCormick Blair Jr., was J.F.K.’s ambassador to Denmark and they’d stop in New York on their way home to Washington.
 -- Bob Colacello, "Here's to the Ladies Who Lunched!," Vanity Fair, Feb. 2012
She trusted the dowager, and respected her deeply. But that wasn't the issue. Which world was she living in? For the time being, that was the point.
 -- Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
Dowager stems from the Latin word dotare meaning "to endow." In the middle French, it came to mean "pertaining to a dower," or the gift/payment that a wife's family gives her husband when they are married.
1。一個莊嚴的尊嚴的老年婦女，尤其是提升社會地位。
2。一個女人誰擁有從她已故的丈夫，尤其是國王的遺孀，公爵等一些標題或財產

形容詞：
1。注意到有關的，或皇太后的特性：

布萊爾rhapsodized deeda精緻的La Grenouille和香格里拉帆船，兩個精緻的法國美食，她的遺孀慈善家瑪麗·拉斯克或無處不在南肯普納吃午飯，在20世紀60年代初的領導寺廟的氣氛中時，她的丈夫，威廉麥考密克布萊爾小肯尼迪的駐丹麥大使，他們會停止在紐約，華盛頓在回家的路上。
鮑勃 - Colacello，“這裡是女士們共進午餐！”名利場“，2012年2月

她信任皇太后，她深深的尊重。不過，這不是問題。這世界，她住在？為暫時的，這是一點。
- 村上春樹，1Q84

太后源於“賦予”從拉丁詞dotare的意義在中間的法國，它意味著“有關嫁妝”或妻子的家人給她的丈夫，他們結婚時的禮物/付款。