Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “legacy” come from?

Legacy comes from Middle English legacie, from Old French legacie, originally denoting a bequest or gift left by will.

legacy (English): Money or property bequeathed to someone in a...

Definitions

  1. Money or property bequeathed to someone in a...

Ancestry of “legacy”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishlegacie—
2Old Frenchlegacie—
3Medieval Latinlegatia—
4LatinlegatumA bequest, legacy; nominative neuter singular of...
5Latinlēgātus—
6Latinlegō—
7Latinlēx—
8Proto-Italiclēg-—
9Proto-Indo-Europeanleǵ-s—
10Proto-Indo-Europeanleǵ-to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning to...

Words derived from “legacy”

  • nonlegacy
  • legacy-free
Every word from Proto-Indo-European leǵ- →