# scion

Pronunciation: say "SY-uhn" US /ˈsaɪ.ən/, UK /ˈsaɪən/

## Noun

1. A descendant or heir of a distinguished, wealthy, or royal family.
   - Simple: A child or later member of a rich, famous, or royal family, often one expected to carry it on.
   - _As the scion of a centuries-old aristocratic house, he felt the weight of every expectation._
   - _The novel follows a restless scion who walks away from his family's shipping empire._
2. A detached shoot or twig bearing buds from a woody plant, used in grafting; more generally, any shoot or twig.
   - Simple: A small shoot or twig, especially one cut off with its buds to be joined onto another plant.
   - _She grafted a scion from the old pear tree onto a younger rootstock._
   - _Growers select scions from trees that reliably produce the best fruit._

## Origin

Scion comes from Middle English sion via Old French cion, which came from Frankish and Proto-Germanic words meaning "sprout." These go back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to split open, sprout," the same source as Old English ċīþ ("young shoot"). It is a doublet of chit.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/scion (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).