inheritance

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• enheritance (obsolete)
• enheritaunce (obsolete)
• inheritaunce (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪnˈhɛɹətəns/, X-SAMPA: /In"hEr@t@ns/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology

Recorded since 1473, from to inherit, itself from Old French enheriter "make heir, appoint as heir," from Late Latin inhereditare "to appoint as heir," from Latin in- "in" + hereditare "to inherit," from heres (gen. heredis) "heir".

Noun

inheritance (countable and uncountable; plural inheritances)

1. The passing of title to an estate upon death.
2. (countable) That which a person is entitled to inherit, by law or testament.
3. (biology) The hereditary passing of biological attributes from ancestors to their offspring.
4. (computing) In object-oriented programming, the mechanism whereby parts of a superclass are available to instances of its subclass.

Related terms

• inherit
• inheritable
• inheritor
• preheritance

Translations

that which a person in entitled to inherit

• Berber:

  Tashelhit: ayda

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 遺產 (cmn), 遗产 (cmn) (yíchǎn)

• Dutch: erfenis, erfdeel n
• Esperanto: heredo (eo)
• Finnish: perintö (fi)
• Irish: oidhreacht (ga) f

• Italian: eredità (it) f
• Old English: yrfe m
• Polish: spadek (pl) m
• Russian: наследство (ru) (naslédstvo) n
• Scottish Gaelic: oighreachd (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian: nasledstvo n
• Swedish: arv (sv) n

the passing of title to an estate upon death

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 继承 (cmn)

• Czech: dědičnost (cs) f
• Dutch: erfenis (nl), nalatenschap (nl)
• Finnish: periminen (fi)

• Irish: oidhreacht (ga) f
• Polish: dziedziczenie (pl) n
• Russian: наследование (ru) (naslédovanije) n
• Scottish Gaelic: oighreachd (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian: nasleđivanje n

the hereditary passing of biological attributes from ancestors to off-spring

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 遗传 (cmn)

• Czech: dědičnost (cs) f
• Dutch: erfelijkheid
• Finnish: perimä (fi)
• German: Erbschaft (de)
• Irish: oidhreacht (ga) f

• Italian: ereditarietà (it) f
• Polish: dziedziczenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: herança (pt) f
• Russian: наследование (ru) (naslédovanije) n
• Swahili: urithi (sw)
• Swedish: arv (sv) n

in object-oriented programming, specific properties of child objects

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 继承 (cmn)

• Czech: dědičnost (cs) f
• Finnish: perimä (fi)

• Italian: ereditarietà (it) f
• Polish: dziedziczenie (pl) n
• Russian: наследование (ru) (naslédovanije) n

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Serbo-Croatian: nasljeđivanje (sh) n (1,2,3)
• German: Erbschaft
• Italian: eredità
• Telugu:(vArasatvamu)వారసత్వము (te)

References

• “inheritance” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).