Legacy Meaning: What We Leave Behind

Legacy meaning: four common senses

1. A gift in a will. Money or personal property left to someone after death. She received a small legacy from her godfather. This is the oldest everyday sense and is still used in law.
2. Lasting influence. What a person, group or event leaves for the future, good or bad. The doctor's legacy is a free clinic that still runs today.
3. Old but still used (adjective). Technology, rules or products carried over from an earlier time. The bank still runs legacy systems written decades ago.
4. A family link in admissions. In US colleges, a legacy is an applicant whose parent or relative studied there.

If you need one legacy definition that covers most uses, "something handed down from before" fits nearly all of them.

Examples of legacy in sentences

• The teacher's real legacy is the hundreds of students who now love science.
• Decades of pollution left a toxic legacy in the river.
• Our team spent a year replacing legacy code that nobody fully understood.
• He left a legacy of 5,000 rupees to each of his nieces.
• The war's legacy can still be seen in the border towns.

How the word changed over time

The first legacy meaning in English, recorded in the late 1300s, was one few people know today: a group of people sent on a mission, or the office of a legate, an official envoy. It came from Medieval Latin legatia, from Latin legatus, an ambassador or deputy. By the fifteenth century, in Scottish writing, it had taken on the sense of property left by will. From there it widened to anything handed down. The adjective sense for old technology is much more recent, growing with the computer industry.

Legacy in wills and estates

In legal language, a legacy is a gift of money or personal property made in a will. The person who receives it is the legatee. Lawyers sometimes separate types, such as a specific legacy (a named item, like a watch), a general legacy (a sum of money) and a residuary legacy (whatever is left after debts and other gifts). In some systems the word bequest is used the same way, while gifts of land were traditionally called devises. Charities often ask supporters to consider "leaving a legacy" in their will.

Legacy systems, legacy media and legacy admissions

In technology, a legacy system is old hardware or software that an organization still depends on, often because replacing it is costly or risky. In the news business, legacy media means long-established outlets such as newspapers, radio and television, as opposed to newer online forms. In US higher education, legacy admissions give some advantage to children of former students. That practice is debated: supporters say it builds loyalty and donations, while critics argue it favors already advantaged families, and some states have banned it at certain colleges.

Legacy, heritage and inheritance

The core meaning of legacy looks forward from the giver; inheritance looks back from the receiver. Words about wealth and planning, such as annuity and portfolio, are listed on our business and money page, while common words sit in everyday vocabulary.