Advertisement

heirloom (n.)

early 15c., ayre lome, a hybrid from heir + loom (n.) in its original but now otherwise obsolete sense of "implement, tool," extended to mean "article." Technically, some piece of property that by will or custom passes down with the real estate. General sense of "anything handed down from generation to generation" is from 1610s.

Others are reading

Advertisement
Definitions of heirloom from WordNet

heirloom (n.)
(law) any property that is considered by law or custom as inseparable from an inheritance is inherited with that inheritance;
heirloom (n.)
something that has been in a family for generations;
From wordnet.princeton.edu