heredito

Forms

hērēditō (present infinitive hērēditāre, perfect active hērēditāvī, supine hērēditātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin hērēditās (“inheritance”), made in the Old Latin Bible and the Vulgate to render Ancient Greek κληρονομέω (klēronoméō, “to inherit”), just as that verb stands beside κληρονομία (klēronomíā, “inheritance”).^[1][2] Formally it is the noun with the verbal suffix -tō, shortened by haplology from an expected ⟨*hērēditātitō⟩.^[1] Georges and Gaffiot refer it directly to hērēs (“heir”).^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Old Latin translations of the Bible and in the Vulgate,^[1][2] where it means to inherit, with terram, “the land”, as its object in Psalm 24:13.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Like the Greek verb it renders, it sometimes translates a Hebrew verb meaning to drive out or occupy, so that in the Bible it can mean to dispossess or destroy.^[1] Augustine uses it for making someone an heir,^[3] and a deponent form hērēditor is found beside it.^[2][1] In Church Latin it means to inherit or be an heir.^[6]

Medieval charters use it for inheriting land, for bequeathing it, for appointing an heir or endowing someone with an inheritance, and for succeeding an heir.^[7][8] In Bohemia it also meant to assign the forfeited property of the losing party in a lawsuit to the winner.^[9] It lives on in Old French ereter and Spanish heredar.^[2]

Timeline

• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it for inheriting the land (Psalm 24:13).^[5][10]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it in the sense “make someone heir”.^[3][10]
• 435/439 AD – Salvian writes of inheriting one's goods (bona sua).^[5][4][10]
• 833/41 – A St Gall charter uses it of the male line inheriting property.^[7]
• 1327 – A Hungarian document has daughters or sons “succeed and inherit” by the custom of the kingdom.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To inherit; to be an heir.^{[5][3][6][11]}
2. To make someone heir, to appoint as heir.^[3][11]
3. (Late Latin, in Bible translation) To drive out, dispossess; to take away.^[1]
4. (Medieval Latin) To bequeath; to endow with an inheritance.^[7][8]
5. (Medieval Latin) To succeed someone as heir; to fall to someone by right of inheritance.^[7]

Word family

• exhērēditō
• inhērēditō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b c Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
9. ^ Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences
10. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
11. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier