heir

From Middle English heir, from Anglo-Norman eir, heir, from Latin hērēs.

• (US) enPR: âr, IPA^(key): /ɛəɹ/

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• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
• Homophones: air, ere, Ayr

heir (plural heirs)

1. Someone who inherits, or is designated to inherit, the property of another.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     I am my father's heir and only son.

   • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:

     And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […]: Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spangle for his heir.

2. One who inherits, or has been designated to inherit, a hereditary title or office.
3. A successor in a role, representing continuity with the predecessor.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope

     And I his heir in misery alone.

   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:

     "I wish we were back in Tenth Street. But so many children came […] and the Tenth Street house wasn't half big enough; and a dreadful speculative builder built this house and persuaded Austin to buy it. Oh, dear, and here we are among the rich and great; and the steel kings and copper kings and oil kings and their heirs and dauphins. […]"

   • 2013 May 11, “What a waste”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8835, page 12:

     India is run by gerontocrats and epigones: grey hairs and groomed heirs.

• (one who inherits property): beneficiary (law), inheritor
• (one who inherits title): inheritor
• (successor in a role): See also Thesaurus:successor

heir (third-person singular simple present heirs, present participle heiring, simple past and past participle heired)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To inherit.
   • Quoted in 1950, Our Garst family in America (page 27)

     […] Leonard Houtz & John Myer to be executors to this my last will & testament & lastly my children shall heir equally, one as much as the other.

• legatee
• devisee

• Hire, ReHi, hire, rehi

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heir n (plural heiren, diminutive heirtje n)

1. (archaic) Alternative spelling of heer (“army”)

heir

1. Alternative form of hire

• “hir(e), pron (2)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 10 June 2018.

heir

1. Alternative form of here (“their”)

• “her(e (pron.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 12 June 2018.