legatee
1
9.1
- noun
- /ˌlɛɡəˈti/
- Formal
:
legatario
- Their architects, less fearful of deliberate applications of national economic strategies, less convinced that human institutions inevitably produce absurd results, are intellectual legatees not of Smith but of Hamilton and List.
Examples
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Mrs. Mundson is the sole legatee.
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There was no shortage of candidates, since aside from his own considerable fortune, William was also the legatee of his dead wife's handsome properties.
Academic text (1999) -
As the Arabs saw it, the plan was clearly designed to benefit areas of Jewish settlement, whereas the Arab areas figured only as "residuary legatees."
Academic text (1996) -
Broughton, the ill-tempered legatee, who poured one million dollars (one million dollars) down a rathole called Vermonter(s),
Blog text (22) -
But the institutionalization of the fragmented nature of the Arab people by the legatees and beneficiaries of the past divisions has worked against the interests of the Arabs.
Academic text (1996) -
In one of those newspaper essays of 1893, Mary Proctor, legatee of the once-renowned Richard A. Proctor, told of observing over several weeks a bright star in the constellation Aquila, "from the front porch of my home on North Sixth Street" in St. Joseph.
Academic text (1999) -
After her uncle passed away, Sarah learned she was the sole legatee of his estate.
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As the legatee of her grandmother's will, Emma received all the family heirlooms.
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The lawyer informed him that he was named as a legatee in the deceased's last will.
Synonyms
7
4.6
A person who is allowed by law or a will to receive someone's property after they die
4
6.2
A person or group that officially receives something such as money, rights, property
1
8.6
A person who receives money or a gift, often from a trust
Surface Forms
Morphology
legatee = legate (semi-transparent) = legate + ee
The suffix '-ee' clearly marks a recipient, but the verb 'legate' (to bequeath) is rare/archaic for many learners, making the root less immediately recognizable.
Etymology
Legatee comes from the same root as legacy, which began in a Latin word meaning 'to leave' something to someone after death. The ending -ee marks the person who gets something. So a legatee is the person who receives money or property from a will.