hereditas

Forms

hērēditās f (genitive hērēditātis); third declension^[1] The ablative hērēditātī is found in an inscription and in Varro.^[2] The genitive plural is usually hērēditātum (Cicero), also hērēditātium (Cicero, Suetonius, Gaius).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin hērēs (“heir”) + -tās.^[2][1][4][5] De Vaan finds most likely Nussbaum's explanation of hērēs as a noun built on an adjective ⟨*ǵʰeh₁ro-⟩ “left behind, bereft”, the same as Ancient Greek χῆρος (khêros, “bereaved”).^[6] Cassiodorus derived it from erus (“master”), because the heir rules freely over what he inherits.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.^[6][7] Varro uses it for inheriting an estate: sī istīus modī mī fundus hērēditātī obvēnerit, “if a farm of that kind should come to me by inheritance”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Hērēditās is the act of inheriting, hereditary succession, and the position of heir, heirship (Cicero: so that he would not be shut out of his brother's inheritance).^[2][3] It is also what is inherited, an inheritance or estate.^[2][3][1]

Church Latin glosses it “heredity, inheritance, heirship”.^[8] In medieval Latin it was also landed property held in full ownership, whether inherited or not, the allod, and allodial right.^[9] English heredity (1530s) comes from it through French.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[6][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro: fundus hērēditātī obvēnerit.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a brother's inheritance.^[2][7]
• 1530s – English heredity.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Inheriting, hereditary succession.^[2][3][1]
2. Heirship.^[2][3][8]
3. An inheritance, an estate inherited.^[2][3][1][8]
4. (Medieval Latin) Land held in full ownership, an allod; allodial right.^[9]

Word family

• hērēditārius
• hērēditō

Related words

• hērēs
• hērēdium
• exhērēs
• English heredity

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill