different between inheritance vs endowment

English

Alternative forms

• enheritance (obsolete)
• enheritaunce (obsolete)
• inheritaunce (obsolete)

Etymology

Recorded since 1473, inherit +? -ance. More at inherit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?h???t?ns/

Noun

inheritance (countable and uncountable, plural inheritances)

1. The passing of title to an estate upon death.
2. (countable) That which a person is entitled to inherit, by law or testament.
3. (uncountable, especially linguistics, biology) The act or mechanism of inheriting; the state of having inherited

   The Indo-European languages share various similarities as a result of their inheritance from a common ancestor.

4. (biology, genetic algorithms) The biological attributes passed hereditarily from ancestors to their offspring.
5. (programming, object-oriented programming) The mechanism whereby parts of a superclass are available to instances of its subclass.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

• inheritance law
• preheritance

Related terms

• inherit
• inheritable
• inheritor

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “inheritance”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

English

Etymology

From Middle English endowement; equivalent to endow +? -ment.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: ?n-dou?m?nt, ?n-, IPA^(key): /?n?da?m?nt/, /?n?da?m?nt/
• (US) enPR: ?n-dou?m?nt, ?n-, IPA^(key): /?n?da?m?nt/, /?n?da?m?nt/

Noun

endowment (plural endowments)

1. Something with which a person or thing is endowed.
   • 1791, Benjamin Banneker, Letter to Thomas Jefferson on racism and slavery (19 August 1791):

     I suppose it is a truth too well attested to you, to need a proof here, that we are a race of beings, who have long labored under the abuse and censure of the world; that we have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt; and that we have long been considered rather as brutish than human, and scarcely capable of mental endowments.

   • 1958, Adlai Stevenson, Speech to the United Parents Association:

     We must not, in opening our schools to everyone, confuse the idea that all should have equal chance with the notion that all have equal endowments.

   • 1985, Jonas Salk, Interview on The Open Mind (11 May 1985):

     What is … important is that we — number one: Learn to live with each other. Number two: try to bring out the best in each other. The best from the best, and the best from those who, perhaps, might not have the same endowment.
2. Property or funds invested for the support and benefit of a person or not-for-profit institution.
   • 1884, Edwin Abbott Abbott, in chapter 8 of his novella Flatland:

     Not content with the natural neglect into which Sight Recognition was falling, they began boldly to demand the legal prohibition of all "monopolizing and aristocratic Arts" and the consequent abolition of all endowments for the studies of Sight Recognition, Mathematics, and Feeling.

   • 1932, Robert Clarkson Clothier, after assuming the presidency of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

     I seem to see a great university, great in endowment, in land, in buildings, in equipment, but greater still, second to none, in its practical idealism, and its social usefulness.
3. (insurance) Endowment assurance or pure endowment.
4. (Mormonism) A ceremony designed to prepare participants for their role in the afterlife.

Synonyms

• (something with which a person or thing is endowed): gift

Derived terms

• endowment mortgage

Related terms

• endow

Translations

Middle English

Noun

endowment

1. Alternative form of endowement