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heirloom

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heir⋅loom

  [air-loom]
Use heirloom in a Sentence
–noun
1. a family possession handed down from generation to generation.
2. Law. property neither personal nor real that descends to the heir of an estate as part of the real property.
–adjective
3. being an old variety that is being cultivated again: heirloom vegetables and fruits.
Origin:
1375–1425; late ME heirlome. See heir, loom 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Heirloom
Heirloom Online. Shop Target.com.
www.Target.com
Heirloom
Super heirloom vegetable seeds. Fast Shipping & Quality Guarantee!
Burpee.com/Heirloom Vegetables
heir·loom   (âr'lōōm')   
n.  

  1. A valued possession passed down in a family through succeeding generations.

  2. An article of personal property included in an inherited estate.

  3. A cultivar of a vegetable or fruit that is open-pollinated and is not grown widely for commercial purposes. An heirloom often exhibits a distinctive characteristic such as superior flavor or unusual coloration.


[Middle English heirlome : heir, heir; see heir + lome, implement; see loom2.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

heirloom 
1472, ayre lome, from heir (q.v.) + loom in its original but now otherwise obsolete sense of "implement, tool." Technically, some piece of property that by will or custom passes down with the real estate.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Encyclopedia

heirloom

an item of personal property that by immemorial usage is regarded as annexed by inheritance to a family estate. The owner of such an heirloom may dispose of it during his lifetime, but he cannot bequeath it by will away from the estate. If he dies intestate (without a will), the object goes to his heir at law; otherwise it goes to whoever takes the estate under his will. Such heirlooms are now almost unknown, but the word has acquired a secondary and popular meaning of items of special, endearing value, such as furniture or pictures, handed down from one generation to the next.

Learn more about heirloom with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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