Legacy Definition

lĕgə-sē

legacies

noun

legacies

Money or property left to someone by a will; bequest.

Webster's New World

Anything handed down from, or as from, an ancestor.

Webster's New World

A student applying or admitted to a college or university who is a relative of an alumnus.

Webster's New World

A grant by will of personal property or of money.

Webster's New World Law

The descendant of an alumnus.

Because she was a legacy, her mother's sorority rushed her.

Wiktionary

Synonyms:

adjective

Being or having to do with something, esp. something outdated or otherwise undesirable, that is carried over from a previous system, business operation, etc.

Webster's New World

Retained under an obsolescent or discarded system, chiefly for purposes of reference.

Legacy files in the old e-mail system.

American Heritage

(computing) Of a computer system that has been in service for many years and that a business still relies upon, even though it is becoming expensive or difficult to maintain.

Wiktionary

Left behind; old or no longer in active use.

They expect it to take years to process and import all the legacy data.

A legacy number or legacy identifier means a number no longer in use (for a document, for example)."

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Legacy

Noun

Singular:

legacy

Plural:

legacies

Origin of Legacy

Middle English legacie office of a deputy from Old French from Medieval Latin lēgātia from Latin lēgātus past participle of lēgāre to depute, bequeath leg- in Indo-European roots

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From Old French legacie, from Medieval Latin legatia, from Latin lēgātum, participle of lēgō.

From Wiktionary