legacy

Plurallegacies

1. 1
   nouncountable

   Something handed down from a predecessor or inherited from earlier times.

   The civil rights movement left a lasting legacy of social change.

   Generations later, the architect's buildings remain her most visible legacy.

   Similarheritage

   Note

   The figurative inheritance is not always a gift. John Muir left respect for the environment as his legacy, but a reform party can also promise to undo the legacy of military rule. Close in meaning to heritage, it most often carries an of-phrase naming its source: the legacy of military rule, the legacies of the Parkland victims. It keeps the picture of something handed on from the legal bequest.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Money or property left to someone under the terms of a will.

   Under his father's will, each grandchild received a modest legacy.

   The will divided the estate into several legacies for distant relatives.

   Similarbequest, inheritance

   Note

   A lawyer's word, and a narrow one. A legacy is a gift of money or personal property, traditionally set apart from a devise, which transfers real property such as land. The word reached English as Middle English legacie, through Old French legacie and Medieval Latin lēgātia, from Latin lēgātum. It counts like any noun, so a will can divide an estate into several legacies.

3. 3
   adjective

   Left over from an earlier time; old and no longer current, though often still in use.

   Migrating data off the legacy platform took the team several months.

   Much of the bank's legacy code dates back to the 1980s.

   Similarold, outdated, aging

   Oppositemodern, new, current

   Note

   A computing adjective made from the noun, and it works in both positions. It can come before a noun (legacy code, a legacy platform) or after a verb, as when pre-relational databases are said to be legacy or new systems are fast becoming legacy. Strictly it takes no degrees, though the International Engineering Consortium in 2000 wrote of "a very legacy approach." It means superseded rather than gone, because legacy systems usually remain in service.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A college applicant descended from a graduate of the same institution, given preference in admissions.

   Admissions officers marked her file as a legacy because both parents had graduated there.

   Critics argue that favoring legacies undermines fairness in college admissions.

   Note

   Here the word names a person rather than a thing: the applicant is the legacy. The preference reaches beyond admissions offices, since a sorority may rush a student because her mother was a member. The practice is common at private American universities and is increasingly contested on grounds of equity, so the word often turns up in arguments about fairness.

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