legacy
/ˈlɛɡəsi
/noun (plural legacies)
1An amount of money or property left to someone in a will: my grandmother died and unexpectedly left me a small legacy...
- Bentham tells the family that they are about to inherit a legacy from a relative.
- They have income from legacies or property sales, and they will take in a lot from collections.
- Partnerships will bring you wealth and success and you may inherit a legacy.
Synonyms
bequest, inheritance, heritage, bequeathal, bestowal, benefaction, endowment, gift, patrimony, heirloom, settlement, birthright, provision;
Law devise, hereditament
1.1Something left or handed down by a predecessor: the legacy of centuries of neglect...
- The original was cool, but this one tries with unsuccessful results to live up to the legacy of its predecessor.
- Many have commented on how the lasting divisions on the sub-continent are partly a legacy of British colonialism.
- One of the major themes of the book is the ongoing legacy of colonialism.
Synonyms
consequence, effect, outcome, upshot, spin-off, repercussion, aftermath, footprint, by-product, product, result;
residue, fruits
adjective Computing
Denoting or relating to software or hardware that has been superseded but is difficult to replace because of its wide use.Then new projects that could have gone with the legacy platform start going to the new one....
- None of these legacy ports are able to handle the high bandwidth peripherals of today.
- The legacy server may reside on a different machine and is the third tier in our architecture.
Origin
Late Middle English (also denoting the function or office of a deputy, especially a papal legate): from Old French legacie, from medieval Latin legatia 'legateship', from legatus 'person delegated' (see legate).
law from Old English:
The words legacy (Late Middle English), legal (Late Middle English), legitimate (Late Middle English), and loyal (early 16th century) all descend from Latin lex ‘law’, the source also of law. The phrase law and order is found from the late 16th century. It was Charles Dickens who first said the law is an ass, or rather his character Mr Bumble did in Oliver Twist: ‘“If the law supposes that,” said Mr Bumble…“the law is a ass…a idiot.”’ See also jungle