Heritage

How to spell heritage

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce heritage

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does heritage mean?

1. nounThe traditions, achievements, property, or culture passed down from previous generations.

Heritage in a sentence

• The museum celebrates the region's industrial heritage.

• She felt proud of her family's musical heritage.

Where does heritage come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English through Old French during the 1200s, where 'heritage' meant property or rank that could be passed down to an heir. It traces back to the Latin verb hereditare, 'to inherit', which itself grew from heres (stem heredem), meaning 'an heir', the person who takes possession of what the dead leave behind. The Latin -aticum ending, the source of the English -age, originally turned a noun into something collective or a condition, so heritage literally framed inheritance as a state of being handed down. Over the centuries the sense broadened from purely legal property to the wider idea of customs, buildings, and traditions inherited by a whole people. The same heres root survives in 'heir', 'heredity', and 'inherit', and remembering that herit- carries a single 't' before the -age helps avoid the temptation to double it.

How the word is built

• herit- (from Latin heres/heredem: heir, one who inherits)
• -age (noun suffix: condition or collective thing)