heirloom

C2+ Topic:Family & Relationships

US /ˈɛrˌluːm/ UK /ˈeəˌluːm/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a valued object passed down through generations of a family

The pocket watch was a heirloom from her great-grandfather.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a valued object passed down... keepsake legacy inheritance relic memento

Word family

Related forms heir loom inherit heritage

Etymology

A compound of heir and loom; loom here is the archaic word for a tool or implement (Old English gelōma 'utensil'), so an heirloom is a chattel that passes to the heir along with the estate.

heres Latin gelōma Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Family & Relationships

External links

# heirloom

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈɛrˌluːm/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈeəˌluːm/

## Meanings
1. a valued object passed down through generations of a family

## Examples
- The pocket watch was a heirloom from her great-grandfather.

## Synonyms
- keepsake
- legacy
- inheritance
- relic
- memento

## Related Forms
- heir
- loom
- inherit
- heritage

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: heres
- Root: gelōma

## Etymology
A compound of heir and loom; loom here is the archaic word for a tool or implement (Old English gelōma 'utensil'), so an heirloom is a chattel that passes to the heir along with the estate.

## AI Etymology
heirloom is a compound of heir and loom; loom here is the archaic word for a tool or implement (Old English gelōma 'utensil'), so an heirloom is a chattel that passes to the heir along with the estate. Morphologically, the word is best read through the components named in the history, with the modern spelling preserving a compound structure rather than a single unanalyzable stem. In present English, the noun sense is "a valued object passed down through generations of a family", so the historical development ends in a clearly identifiable modern dictionary use. The same base also appears in related forms such as heir, loom, inherit, and heritage. Its semantic neighborhood includes keepsake, legacy, inheritance, and relic, which helps locate the modern sense without adding a separate etymological claim. The named historical forms include Latin heres and Old English gelōma.

## Topics
- Family & Relationships

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