scion

/ˈsī-ən/

Middle English sioun, syon "branch, twig, offshoot," borrowed from Anglo-French cioun, ciun, sioun (continental Old French cion "offspring, new growth of a plant") from ci-, going back to an Old Low Franconian outcome of West Germanic *kīþa- "sprout, bud" + Old French -on, suffix, perhaps here with diminutive value, going back to Latin -ōn-, -ō, suffix of nouns denoting persons with a prominent feature; *kīþa- "sprout, bud" (whence also Old English cīþ "sprout, shoot, bud," Old Saxon kīth "shoot," Old High German kīd, also -kīdi in frumikīdi "first one"), going back to Indo-European *ǵei̯H-ti- or *ǵiH-ti-, noun derivative of a verbal base *ǵei̯H- "burst out, sprout," whence, from a nasal present, Germanic *kīnan- (whence Old English cīnan "to burst open, gape, [of skin] be chapped," Old Saxon kīnan "to sprout," Old High German chīnan "to sprout, germinate," Swedish dialect kina "to yawn," Gothic keinan "to sprout," uskeinan "to put forth, send out [growth]," with past participle uskijanata lacking -n-); whence also, with suffixed *-d{sup}h{/sup}-, Latvian ziêdu, ziêdêt "to bloom," Lithuanian žydė́ti

noun

  1. descendant, child; especially : a descendant of a wealthy, aristocratic, or influential family

  2. heir

  3. a detached living portion of a plant (such as a bud or shoot) joined to a stock in grafting and usually supplying solely aerial parts to a graft

scion of a railroad empire