heredero

Forms

heredero m (plural herederos, feminine heredera, feminine plural herederas)^[1] The earliest form is eretero in a charter of 1092;^[2] heredero appears in 1173.^[3] Old Spanish texts also have eredero and herederio.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin hērēditārius (“relating to an inheritance”).^[3][4][5][1] In Medieval Latin the adjective was also used for the heir himself.^[6][7] In Castilian, Galician-Portuguese and French this derivative replaced the Latin word for “heir”, hērēs, which survives in Catalan hereu and Old Occitan ere.^[3][4] The learned doublet is hereditario, recorded from about 1600.^[3][4]

The same Latin word is Portuguese herdeiro, Galician herdeiro, Asturian herederu and French héritier.^[8][3][1] Nascentes explains the Portuguese form by haplology from an older *herdedeiro.^[9]

The Latin adjective is formed from hērēditās (“inheritance”) with -ārius, which is in turn from the word for “heir”.^[10][1] De Vaan derives the noun from Proto-Italic *χērēd-, built on Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁ro- (“derelict”), which is related to Ancient Greek χήρα (khḗra, “widow”).^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas, following Menéndez Pidal's Orígenes, dates the word to a charter of 1092, written eretero; the spelling heredero appears in 1173, and the word is frequent from Berceo on.^[3] DEMel lists the feminine heredera in a document of 1115 from San Vicente de Oviedo and heredero in 1135.^[2] In all of these it means the person who succeeds to another's property.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose uses it both for the heir and as an adjective meaning “hereditary”: an astrological treatise of 1254 calls an illness heredera because the father had it too.^[12] In the Middle Ages, and in Galician-Portuguese herdeiro, it also meant the owner or tenant of a heredad, a landed estate; the Academy kept that sense as obsolete from 1817.^[13] Autoridades recorded a further sense, “wine grower”, from the vineyards a man owned.^[14]

The figurative sense, someone who has inherited the traits of his parents, entered the Academy's dictionary in 1817 as a metaphor.^[13] The legal phrases heredero forzoso, the heir whom the testator cannot exclude without lawful cause, and instituir heredero, to name an heir in a will, have been in the dictionaries since Autoridades and the early 19th century.^[14][15] In 1884 the Academy classed it as an adjective also used as a noun, as the DLE still does.^[16][5]

Timeline

• 1092 – a charter has the form eretero.^[3][4]
• 1115 – the feminine heredera in a document of San Vicente de Oviedo.^[2]
• 1173 – the spelling heredero in a charter.^[3]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's prose uses it as an adjective, “hereditary”.^[12]
• 1525 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[17]
• c. 1600 – the learned doublet hereditario is first recorded.^[4]
• 1734 – Autoridades defines the heir and the phrase heredero forzoso.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary treats it as an adjective also used as a noun.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. An heir: a person who succeeds to an inheritance by will or by law: Dejó a su sobrino como único heredero.^[5][1]
2. heredero forzoso (law) A forced heir, one who by law receives a share of the estate that the testator cannot take away without lawful cause.^[5]
3. príncipe heredero The crown prince, who is to succeed the king.^[18]

Adjective

1. Inheriting, or entitled to inherit, an estate.^[5][19]
2. Owning an estate or estates (a heredad).^[5]
3. Having inherited the traits or character of one's parents, or something from those who came before: un pintor heredero de la tradición flamenca.^[5][19]

Word family

• coheredero

Related words

• heredar
• heredad
• herencia
• hereditario
• Latin hērēs
• Portuguese herdeiro

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. heredero
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 344
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. heredad
5. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. heredero
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. heredero
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. hereditarius
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3244
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. herdeiro
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. hērēditārius
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. hērēs
12. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. heredero
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 465
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 141
15. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 580
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 560
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. heredero
18. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 315
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. heredero