legacy English · revision 5776

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1382|origins=la legatus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈleɡ.ə.si/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Middle English legacie, [[bor|fro|legacie]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)^(MWU 2024) from [[la-med|lēgātia|t=legateship]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) from [[la|lēgātus|t=envoy, deputy]], the past participle of [[m|la|lēgāre|t=to send as deputy; to bequeath by will]].^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(AHD 2000) The sense of a bequest was also shaped by Anglo-Latin lēgantia, from lēgāre in its sense “to bequeath”.^(Hoad 1986)^(SOED 2002) It is a doublet in origin of [[legate]].^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The office or function of a deputy, especially of a papal legate: 1382 in the OED, about 1384 in Barnhart, in the Wycliffe Bible.^(OED 1989)^(Barnhart 1988) A body of people sent on a mission is from about 1375.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The legate's office gave way to the sense of a gift left by will, which appeared in Scottish about 1460.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) The act of bequeathing is from 1494, and the figurative sense, anything handed down from an ancestor or predecessor, from about 1586.^(OED 1989) Trench noted that the old sense of an embassy survived in the Rheims New Testament (1582), where the king “sendeth a legacie”.^(Trench 1859) ''Legacy-hunter'' is from the 1690s.^(Etymonline) The computing sense, of old systems or software still in use, is a modern addition: MWU dates a sense to 1989.^(MWU 2024)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1375 – a body of envoys.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1382 – the office of a deputy or legate.^(OED 1989)

+ * c. 1460 – a bequest (Scottish).^(OED 1989)^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1494 – the act of bequeathing.^(OED 1989)

+ * c. 1586 – something handed down.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1690s – ''legacy-hunter''.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1989 – a newer sense, in MWU.^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # Money or property left to someone by [[will]]; a [[bequest]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # Something handed down from an [[ancestor]], a predecessor or the past.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ===Adjective===

+ # ''(computing)'' Of hardware or software: old but still in use.^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[legate]]

+ * [[legation]]

+ * [[delegate]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ In Scots, legacy was also a verb meaning to bequeath.^(Wright 1898)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}