heritor
- noun
- /ˈhɛrɪtər/
- Archaic
:
heredero
- The lawyer explained that he was the designated heritor in his uncle's will.
Examples
-
As the only child, she was the sole heritor of her grandmother's estate.
-
If Manifest Destiny is to have any appositeness at all, one would have to claim that the Coloureds were the true heritors of the Khoisan.
Academic text (2001) -
After her parents passed away, she discovered she was the rightful heritor of a family heirloom.
Synonyms
179
4.6
A person who gets money, property, or a title when someone dies
7
4.6
A person who is allowed by law or a will to receive someone's property after they die
1
9.1
A person who gets money or property from a will
A woman who gets property or a title when someone dies
A person the law allows to own or keep something
Surface Forms
Morphology
heritor = inherit (semi-transparent) = herit + or
The sense 'person who receives property' is clearly related to the verb 'inherit', but the visible root 'herit' is not a standalone English form and the word is relatively rare, so learners may not immediately map it to 'inherit'.
Etymology
Heritor is closely related to the common words inherit and heir, which come from old roots about 'receiving' from someone who has died. So a heritor is simply a person who has the right to receive property or money from another person after their death.