Meaning

noun a share of money or food or clothing that has been charitably given

noun money received from the state

originFrom Middle English dol, from Old English dāl (“portion, share, division, allotment”), from Proto-Germanic *dailą (“part, deal”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰayl- (“part, watershed”). Cognate with Old Church Slavonic дѣлити (děliti, “divide”). More at deal.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0