- heredity
- 1540, from M.Fr. hérédité, from L. hereditatem (nom. hereditas) "condition of being an heir," from heres (gen. heredis) "heir," from PIE base *ghe- "to be empty, left behind" (cf. Gk. khera "widow"). Legal sense of "inheritable quality or character" first recorded 1784; the modern biological sense seems to be found first in 1863, introduced by Herbert Spencer.