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heredity

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Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionaryhe·red·i·ty \hə-ˈre-də-tē\ noun ETYMOLOGY Middle French heredité, from Latin hereditat-, hereditas, from hered-, heres heir — more at heir DATE circa 15401. a. inheritance b. tradition2. a. the sum of the characteristics and potentialities genetically derived from one's ancestors b. the transmission of such qualities from ancestor to descendant through the genesEnglish Etymologyheredity 1540, from M.Frhttp://M.Fr. hérédité, from L. hereditatem (nom. hereditas) "condition of being an heir," from heres (gen. heredis) "heir," from PIE base *ghe- "to be empty, left behind" (cf. Gk. khera "widow"). Legal sense of "inheritable quality or character" first recorded 1784; the modern biological sense seems to be found first in 1863, introduced by Herbert Spencer.Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary-牛津双解-OALD7heredityher·ed·ity / hE5redEti / noun[U] the process by which mental and physical characteristics are passed by parents to their children; these characteristics in a particular person 遗传(过程)；遗传特征: the debate over the effects of heredity and environment 有关遗传与环境影响的辩论 Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridgedhe·red·i·ty\hə̇ˈredəd.ē, -ətē, -i also heˈ-\ noun(-es)Etymology: Middle French heredité, from Latin hereditat-, hereditas, from hered-, heres heir + -itat-, -itas -ity — more at heir1. a. : inheritance < their fathers were of yeoman rank, both by heredity and as large freeholders — Charles Partridge > b. : tradition < Bretons are fishermen by heredity >2. a. : the sum of the qualities and potentialities of an individual that are genetically derived from its ancestors : the germinal constitution of an individual b. : the transmission of qualities from ancestor to descendant (as from parent to child) through a mechanism lying primarily in the chromosomes of the germ cells that in sexually reproducing organisms sorts out in meiosis the genes accumulated in past generations and recombines them during fertilization to produce a new individual conforming to the general pattern of its kind but exhibiting variations dependent both on specific recombination of factors and on interaction between the hereditary potentialities and the environment — compare galton's law of inheritance, lamarckism, mendel's law, pangenesis, phenocopy, weismannism

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