hæritage

Noun

heritage (countable and uncountable, plural heritages)

1. An inheritance; property that may be inherited.
   • Now unſpeakable happy are all thoſe that have ſuch an heritage: can we thinke they will part with it? No verily, […] they will not part with ſuch an inheritance as Chriſt is, rich, fat, alwayes fruitfull, and never decaying.1652, John Robotham, chapter III, in An Exposition: On the whole Book of Solomons Song; Commonly called The Canticles., London, →OCLC, page 413
2. A tradition; a practice or set of values that is passed down from preceding generations through families or through institutional memory.
   • In fact it was a multifarious agglomerate of many little countries, gathered by marriage, heritage and luck, in the course of centuries, and now united in the hand of this Duke Wilhelm.1858, Thomas Carlyle, chapter XIII, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III, page 247
3. A birthright; the status acquired by birth, especially of but not exclusive to the firstborn.
4. (attributive) Having a certain background, such as growing up with a second language.
   • a heritage speaker; a heritage language

See all 5 meanings of heritage