Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HEIR, n. [āre; Norm. hier, here; Arm. hear, haer; Sw. heredero; Port. herdeiro; Fr. heritier; It. erede; L. hæres, hæredis, from the verb, Eth. ወረሰ waras, Heb. ירש, وَرَتَ warata, to become an heir, to inherit. The primary sense is to seize, or to rush on and take, or to expel and dispossess others, and take their property, according to the practice of rude nations. We observe in the Hebrew and Ethiopic, the last consonant is a sibilant, as in the Latin nominative, but the oblique cases in the Latin correspond with the Arabic word, whose final consonant is a dental. This word may be connected with the Gr. αίρεω, to take. See Class Rd, No. 51, 52, 68.]

1. The man who succeeds, or is to succeed another in the possession of lands, tenements and hereditaments, by descent; the man on whom the law casts an estate of inheritance by the death of the ancestor or former possessor; or the man in whom the title to an estate of inheritance is vested by the operation of law, on the death of a former owner. We give the title to a person who is to inherit after the death of an ancestor, and during his life, as well as to the person who has actually come into possession. A man's children are his heirs. In most monarchies, the king's eldest son is heir to the throne; and a nobleman's eldest son is heir to his title. Lo, one born in my house is my heir. Gen. xv.
2. One who inherits, or takes from an ancestor. The son is often heir to the disease, or to the miseries of the father.
3. One who succeeds to the estate of a former possessor. Jer. xlix. Mic. i.
4. One who is entitled to possess. In Scripture, saints are called heirs of the promise, heirs of righteousness, heirs of salvation, &c., by virtue of the death of Christ, or of God's gracious promises.