heredity

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French heredité (“that which is inherited, hereditary succession”) and its source borrowed from Latin hērēditās (“inheritance, position of heir”),^[2] formed from hērēs (“heir”) and -itās,^[2][3][4] the Latin noun also being the source of Spanish hereditad and Italian eredità.^[2] The French word goes back to Old French eredite, recorded in the 12th century in Etymonline^[5] and about 1050 in the OED, originally in the plural.^[2] Barnhart allows also for a back-formation from hereditary.^[6] Etymonline takes the Latin word for heir from Proto-Indo-European *ghe- (“to be empty, left behind”), the source also of Ancient Greek χήρα (khḗra, “widow”).^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hereditary succession, or something inherited: about 1550, in an English translation of P. Vergil's English History.^[2][8] Barnhart and the Merriam-Webster Unabridged say about 1540,^[6][4] Etymonline the 1530s,^[5] and the Oxford Dictionary of English dates the word only to the late 18th century.^[9]

Semantic evolution

It first meant inheritance or succession, a sense now rare;^[2] the Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records the meaning tradition.^[4] In 1773 it was used in law of the hereditary character of something,^[2] and Barnhart records this sense in a 1784 quotation of General Lafayette.^[6][5] The biological sense, the passing of characteristics from parents to offspring, followed French hérédité, which had this sense in 1821.^[2] The OED's first record is in The Lancet of 1844,^[2] while Barnhart and Etymonline credit Herbert Spencer's The Principles of Biology (1863), now antedated.^[6][5][2] Modern dictionaries add the sum of what an organism inherits.^[10][8]

Timeline

• c. 1550 – hereditary succession; something inherited.^[2][8]
• 1773 – in law, hereditary character or quality.^[2]
• 1844 – in biology, the passing of characteristics to offspring.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The passing of genetic characteristics from parents to offspring: Heredity plays a part in many forms of the disease.^[10][4][2]
2. The sum of the qualities and potentialities that an organism inherits from its ancestors.^[10][4][8]
3. Inheritance, or hereditary succession; something inherited (now rare).^[2][4]
4. Tradition.^[4]
5. (law) Hereditary character or condition (now rare).^[2][8]

Related words

• hereditary
• heir
• heritage
• inherit
• hereditament

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins