heirloom
(ˈɛəluːm)
Forms: see heir, loom; also 6 hare-, earlome (ayrlime).
[f. heir n. + loom tool, utensil.]
A chattel that, under a will, settlement, or local custom, follows the devolution of real estate. Hence, Any piece of personal property that has been in a family for several generations.
| [1424 E.E. Wills (1882) 56, I wull he haue my grete maser þe which I call ȝele, for þe terme of his life, and so from heir to heyr lome.] 1472 Wolley Charter (B.M.) ix. 49 In allowance and recompence of all the heir lomes and of all other goodes that he demaunded of in the right of..his father. 1513 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) V. 39, I will that my best standyng maser..and my best salt..remayne evermore for heyerlomys to the heire male. 1526 Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.) I. 21 That my son Thomas have all heyr lomes that of right after the custome and usage of the shyre of Chester belongeth to hym to have. 1569 Ibid. II. 251 One standinge cuppe of silver..wheare upon ys graven this word earlome. 1569 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1835) 309 That the standinge bed in y⊇ perler w{supt}{suph} a trendell bed and a longsetle shall remayne styll vnto him as ayrlimes. 1628 Coke On Litt. 18 b, In some places chattels as heirloomes (as the best bed, table, pot, pan, cart, and other dead chattels moveable) may go to the heire. 1765 Blackstone Comm. ii. xxviii. 427 Heir-looms are such goods and personal chattles, as, contrary to the nature of chattles, shall go by special custom to the heir along with the inheritance. 1777 Sheridan Sch. Scand. iii. iii, Learning that had run in the family like an heirloom! c 1820 S. Rogers Italy, Ginevra 240 Alone it hangs Over a mouldering heir-loom its companion, An oaken-chest half eaten by the worms. 1872 Jenkinson Guide Eng. Lakes (1879) 126 A glass cup, called..‘The Luck of Muncaster’..is carefully preserved as a precious heirloom, and a harbinger of the family's fortunes. |
b. fig. Anything inherited from a line of ancestors, or handed down from generation to generation.
| 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xi. (R.), He [Edward the Confessor]..obtain'd by earnest pray'r, This tumour by a king might cured be alone: Which he an heir-loom left unto the English throne. 1834 L. Ritchie Wand. by Seine 187 The name of a town, a village, or hamlet, is an heir-loom inherited from our ancestors. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. III. xxi. 592 Political wisdom is the heirloom of no one class of society. |
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▸ attrib. Chiefly N. Amer. Of or designating a variety of plant or breed of animal which is distinct from the more common varieties associated with commercial agriculture, and has been cultivated or reared using the same traditional methods for a long time, typically on a small scale and often within a particular region or family.
| 1949 N.Y. Times 30 Jan. ii. 29/1 One of the old heirloom varieties of lettuce seems to be coming to the fore. 1978 J. Johnson (title) Jim Johnson's heirloom vegetable guide. 1994 Nat. Health Nov. 73, I often give chile pepper wreaths or heirloom beans that are grown only in my region. 2005 Nation's Restaurant News (Nexis) 19 Dec. Williams starts out with heirloom pork shanks rubbed with a mixture of lard, garlic, rosemary and fennel pollen. |