Other forms: inherited, inheriting, inherits
To inherit is to get something from whoever had it before you — money, a house, a nose, a mess. Your aunt dies and you inherit the cottage; you inherit your father's terrible handwriting whether you want it or not.
Three uses run side by side. Property: the will says who inherits what. Biology: you inherit eye colour and height from your parents, which is why an inherited condition is standard medical wording. And work: a new manager inherits a team, a backlog and someone else's decisions. Inherit takes an object, and FROM for the person — she inherited the watch from her grandfather. The thing received is an inheritance, and the person who receives it is an heir, which has a silent h and sounds like 'air'.
1verbinheritTo receive money or property from someone who has died.
“He inherited the farm from an uncle he barely knew.”
2verbphysicalTo receive a physical or personal quality from your parents.
“She inherited her mother's dark eyes.”
3verbtakeTo take over a situation, problem or duty from the person who held the post before you.
“The new head inherited a school with a leaking roof.”
Inherit came through Old French enheriter from Latin inhereditare, 'to make heir'. The heir is right there in the middle of it: the person named to take what is left behind. The borrowed verb pushed out the older native word ierfan, which had done the same job for centuries.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵʰeh₁-
Latin
inhereditare — make heir
Old French
enheriter
Middle English
enheriten
English, today
inherit
From Middle English enheriten, from Old French enheriter, from Latin inhereditare (“make heir”). Displaced native ierfan.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA