scion means A descendant, especially a first-generation descendant of a distinguished family.
scion is pronounced /ˈsaɪən/.
Why “scion” is a great word
A descendant, especially a first-generation descendant of a distinguished family. From Middle English *sion, sioun*, from Old French *cion, sion*, from Frankish *kīþō*, from Proto-Germanic *kīþô* ("sprout"), from Proto-Indo-European *geye-* ("to split open, sprout"), first recorded in English c. 1300. Unlike "progeny," which refers broadly to all offspring, or "heir," which denotes a legal right, scion emphasizes biological lineage as a living continuation. It is the young oak grafted onto ancient rootstock, the solitary name on a society page that carries centuries of gravity, the weight of a surname carried in the set of a jaw—the human embodiment of hope pinned to a fragile, green stem.
Etymology
From Middle English sion, sioun, syon, scion, cion, from Old French cion, ciun, cyon, sion, from Frankish *kīþō, *kīþ, from Proto-Germanic *kīþô, *kīþą, *kīþaz (“sprout”), from Proto-Indo-European *geye- (“to split open, sprout”), same source as Old English ċīþ (“a young shoot; sprout; germ; sprig”), Old Saxon kīth (“sprout; germ”), Old High German kīdi (“offshoot; sprout; germ”). See also French scion and Picard chion. Doublet of chit.
noun
- A descendant, especially a first-generation descendant of a distinguished family.“No senate seats in council for the dead; no scion of a time honoured dynasty pants to rule over the inhabitants of a charnel house; the general's hand is cold, and the soldier has his untimely grave dug in his native fields, unhonoured, though in youth.”
- The heir to a throne.
- A guardian.
- A detached shoot or twig containing buds from a woody plant, used in grafting; a shoot or twig in a general sense.“[If] you finde a certaine miſlike or conſumption in the plant, you ſhall immediatly vvith a ſharp knife cut the plant off ſlope-vviſe upvvard, about three fingers from the ground, and ſo let it reſt till the next ſpring, at vvhich time you ſhall behold nevv cyons iſſue from the roote, […]”
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