Legataries

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual selected to accept an inheritance from a deceased person
2. A person designated to receive property, money, or other assets left in a will by someone who has died
3. One who is named in a testamentary document to inherit specific items or sums after the testator's death

Etymology: "Legataries" is simply the plural of "legatary," a word for a person named in a will to receive particular items or sums. Its root is the Latin "legatarius," which descends from "legaturius," meaning "enjoined by a last will." The idea is contained in the notion of a bequest: someone whose inheritance is spelled out by a testator's instructions rather than by general law. The word belongs to the same family as "legacy," and the link is direct. Both trace back through the Latin "legare," to bequeath or appoint by will, so a legatary is literally a person on the receiving end of a legacy. English also borrowed the closely related French form "légataire," which points to the word's route through a legal vocabulary shared across medieval and early modern Europe.

Synonyms: heirs, beneficiaries, successors, inheritors, legatees