What does enduing mean?
"Enduing" is the present participle of the verb "endue", meaning to invest a person or thing with some quality, power, or attribute — as when a leader is said to be endued with wisdom, or a document is described as enduing an office with authority. It carries a second, archaic sense of literally clothing someone in a garment, which survives chiefly in older translations of scripture, where believers are "endued with power from on high." The word entered Middle English from Old French "enduire", ultimately from the Latin "inducere" (or, in its clothing sense, related to "induere", "to put on"), giving it a long pedigree alongside the variant spelling "indue". Today it reads as distinctly formal and literary, and modern writers usually reach for "endowed with" or "imbued with" instead. Yet it remains useful precisely because of that elevated register: in ceremonial, legal, or devotional prose, to say someone is "endued" with a virtue lends the sentence gravity that plainer phrasing cannot match.
verbPresent participle of "endue": to clothe or invest someone or something with a quality, power, or attribute; also, to put on or be clothed in a garment.
- To invest or endow a person or thing with a quality, faculty, or power.
- (Archaic or literary) To clothe; to dress in a garment.
"The new charter was seen as enduing the council with powers it had never held before."
"The poet imagined wisdom enduing the young king before his coronation."
"Scriptural translations speak of the faithful being endued with power from on high."
"Enduing" looks like a typo of "enduring" at first glance — but it's actually one of the oldest words English has for being clothed in something invisible, like courage or grace.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of enduing
"Endue" came into Middle English from the Old French "enduire", itself descended from the Latin "inducere", "to lead in"; a parallel borrowing produced the variant spelling "indue", which persists in older religious texts. The literal sense of clothing likely reflects influence from the separate Latin verb "induere", "to put on" — a root that also gives English the rare word "don" via contraction in Old French. The word has been used since the medieval period for both dressing in garments and, figuratively, being clothed with virtues or powers.
Related word forms
How enduing is actually used
Formal, literary, and now somewhat archaic; the spelling "indue" is an accepted variant, especially in older religious texts. The verb is used almost exclusively in passive-like constructions such as "endued with". In modern writing, "endowed with" or "imbued with" is far more common.
Easily confused with enduing
"Enduring" means lasting or patient through hardship, while "enduing" means clothing or investing with a quality — they differ by one letter but are unrelated verbs.
"Endowing" typically refers to giving money or a permanent gift (often to an institution), whereas "enduing" invests a person with qualities, powers, or garments.
"Indue" is simply a variant spelling of "endue" with the same meaning of clothing or investing with qualities.