Picture an old woman sitting in a big house that is no longer quite hers and yet entirely hers. Her husband is dead, his title has passed to the next man, and still the land, the money and the room's attention rest with her. A useful way to hold the word is that she outlived him and kept what he left, so nobody in the room is going to hurry her.
可以想成一位老太太坐在一棟大宅裡：房子名義上已經換了主人，可是整個場子還是她的。丈夫過世了，頭銜傳給了下一代，而土地、錢，還有大家的目光，都還落在她身上。一種好記的想法是：她活得比丈夫久，也留住了他留下的東西，所以沒有人敢催她。
From the word’s history
The packet traces dowager to Middle French douage, a dower, from douer, to endow, and back to Latin dos, a dowry. The property is right there in the root, which is why the word is about a widow who kept what came from her husband.
證據裡追到：dowager 來自中古法文 douage（丈夫留給妻子的財產），動詞是 douer（給予財產），再往前是拉丁文 dōs（嫁妝）。財產本來就寫在字根裡。這正好說明為什麼這個字講的是「守著亡夫留下的東西」的遺孀。
Wiktionary, "dowager"
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