What is endowment?

What Does endowment Mean

Endowment is called the act and the result of endowing : granting, contributing, equipping or assigning something. Endowment is also that with which the action of endowing is specified .

For example: "The local government announced that it will increase the endowment of pensions" , "The crew of firefighters arrived at the scene of the accident immediately" , "The winner of the tournament will receive an economic endowment of 100,000 pesos" .
The idea of endowment can be used to name the set of individuals who are assigned to the service of some type of unit (police, health, fire, etc.). In this context, the concept of manning is often associated with the notion of crew .

An endowment , on the other hand, is an amount of money that is contributed for a certain purpose. This can be a prize or a reward given to the winner of a contest or tournament. The writer who wins the Cervantes Prize , to cite one case, receives a financial award of 125,000 euros .
A government can assign financial endowments to various enterprises or areas. The authorities, through this type of decision, intend to favor the development of a project or assist organizations or individuals that need support. In this framework, a city council can increase the amount of scholarships it grants to university students.
The endowment can be goods or objects: an endowment of books that is delivered to a library, an endowment of medical supplies for a first aid room, an endowment of balls and sports clothing for a club, etc. This is formally called a financial endowment , and it is usually on the condition that the assets or money are invested and the main fund remains intact for a certain period or forever.
The financial endowment to colleges and universities can represent large sums of money for a country, as is the case in the United States, where the annual amount at universities like Harvard amounts to more than a billion dollars. The endowment is usually focused on well-defined areas, such as scholarships or endowed chairs (they are also called endowed chairs , and are permanent positions that are paid for with the income of a specific fund ).
The concept of genetic endowment is defined as the set of instructions that we inherit from our parents and that determine our biological potential. In technical terms, it is about the number of genes and their valence, which modifies the value of the genetic material. If we take corn as an example, its triploid tissue called endosperm can have a number of genes and + ranging from one to three, and this directly affects its yellowish color; the amount of carotene is proportional to that of genes and + .

If we focus on our species, whether each individual can develop this potential one hundred percent depends largely on certain environmental factors, such as our diet, study or work environment, air quality, the microorganisms present around us. , etc. Doctors often say that "our health depends on our postal code, more than our genetic endowment", referring precisely to the importance of the characteristics of the place where we live.
This statement makes special sense when allergy-related diseases enter the equation, since they combine a genetic component with an environmental one: we inherit the predisposition to certain allergies from our parents, but our environment considerably conditions the development of an allergy. Allergic diseases can be aroused by food, certain plants in our environment or certain substances in the air we breathe, among other factors.