hérédité

Forms

hérédité f (plural hérédités)^[1] Old French ereditez (plural), heredité;^[2][3][4] Old French also had herité and hereté, adapted after the verb hériter.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin hērēditās (“what one inherits, succession”), derived from hērēs (“heir”).^[2][5][6] Rey notes that the Latin noun for “heir” was masculine until imperial times, since only a son could inherit.^[5] The same Latin noun gave Old French hoir.^[2][7]

Littré compares Old Occitan heretat, Spanish heredad and Italian eredità.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears about 1050 in the Vie de saint Alexis, in the plural ereditez, for the property a person leaves at death: mes granz ereditez.^[2][4][5] The singular is found in the Oxford Psalter at the start of the 12th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the sense “inheritance” the word stayed a legal term until the 19th century (Civil Code, 1804), when héritage replaced it.^[5][3] In law it then meant the quality of heir and the right to take a succession (1538), as in accepter l'hérédité.^[5][2] From the 17th century it also meant transmission by succession, as of a crown (recorded 1690).^[5][2]

Biology took the word up in 1821, in Joseph de Maistre, for the passing of characters from living beings to their descendants.^[2][5] Rey notes that the laws of heredity were worked out only at the start of the 20th century, with the rise of genetics.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – The plural ereditez appears in the Vie de saint Alexis.^[2][3]
• early 12th century – The singular heredité in the Oxford Psalter.^[2]
• 1538 – Estienne records “quality of heir, right to inherit”.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records transmission of rights by blood.^[2]
• 1804 – Still the legal word for an inheritance in the Civil Code.^[5]
• 1821 – Joseph de Maistre uses it in the biological sense.^[2][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) The quality of heir; the right to take a succession.^[9][2]
2. Transmission by succession: l'hérédité de la couronne.^[9][1]
3. (biology) heredity, the passing of characters from living beings to their descendants through the genes: les lois de l'hérédité.^[9][5]
4. (by extension) The characters a person inherits from their forebears.^[9]

Related words

• héréditaire
• hoir
• héritage
• hériter
• Latin hērēditās

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 412a
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert