Disherit

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To cut someone off from a legacy by legally removing their right to receive property or money after death
2. To strip an heir of the wealth or estate they would otherwise have been expected to receive upon a parent's death
3. To exclude a family member from inheriting property, often by a formal will or through a deliberate legal act

Etymology: "Disinherit" is a word built from a Latin prefix and a Latin verb for inheritance, and its path into English ran through Old French. Its Latin ancestor, "hērēditāre," meant to receive or hand down an inheritance, and the prefix "dis-" reverses or undoes the action, so the core sense is to strip someone of what they would otherwise have inherited. Vulgar Latin, the spoken form of the language, shaped it into "dishērētō," and Old French then turned it into "desheriter." English took the word from Old French in Middle English, where it appeared in forms such as "disheriten" and "desheriten." The spelling later settled into the form we use now. The word is a plain, transparent formation: its parts are still visible to any reader who knows that "heir" and "dis-" mean what they mean in other words.