From Middle English legacie, from Old French legacie and Medieval Latin lēgātia, from Latin lēgātum. Compare legatee.
The boardgame sense was coined by game designer Rob Daviau in 2011 with the game Risk Legacy.
Meanings
(especially, not-comparable) Left over from the past; old and no longer current.
However, pre-relational DBMS are legacy. 2003, Carlo Zaniolo, Peter C. Lockemann, Marc H. Scholl, Advances in Database Technology - EDBT 2000, →ISBN:
Because most of these HALs are legacy and only used on aging or outdated hardware, chances are that you do not have any in your lab and must be creative in procuring one from an active user. 2009, Kerrie Meyler, Byron Holt, Greg Ramsey, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 Unleashed, →ISBN:
In practice, there are legacy or mature, domain specific, off the shelf (i.e. software that other software projects can reuse and integrate into their own products) tools that are used regularly by modeleres (e.g., for testing purposes, for communication and collaboration). 2013, Management Association, Software Design and Development, →ISBN:
Legacy acts won't stop releasing music 2024 February 24, “Outtakes or must-haves? Legacy acts won't stop releasing music - have we reached Peak Archive?”, in The Independent, The Independent, retrieved 07 Mar 2025:
They have no idea what occurs in the network or its topology, and all of the services remain dependent on it — a very legacy approach to creating services in the optical network. 2000, International Engineering Consortium, The Emerging Optical Network, →ISBN, page 75:
Finally, the organisation ends up with an expensive ERP of which it uses only part because of divergent evolutionary directions and a set of new systems fast becoming legacy. 2006, Anne Gams Steine Asserson, Eduard J. Simons, Enabling Interaction and Quality: Beyond the Hanseatic League, →ISBN, page 118:
There was talk in the past that ERP systems were legacy, lacked the agility and flexibility, and did not support interoperability. 2008, CIO - 15 Feb 2008 Vol. 21, No. 9, page 49:
(not-comparable, postpositional, sometimes) Belonging to a class of boardgame where permanent changes are made to game elements such as the board, cards and rules over multiple play sessions.
Risk Legacy, in 2011, was the first game to give visibility to the idea of progressive and irreversible discovery in the board gaming hobby, 2 and it did so by applying it to the well-known game Risk. 2018 September 13, Marco Arnaudo, Storytelling in the Modern Board Game: Narrative Trends from the Late 1960s to Today, McFarland, →ISBN, page 183:
Pandemic Legacy can take weeks or even months to play given different groups' play styles. 2020 August 28, Douglas Brown, Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Matthew Wilhelm Kapell, Rerolling Boardgames: Essays on Themes, Systems, Experiences and Ideologies, McFarland, →ISBN, page 25:
Over the course of the years that Daviau worked on Seafall, the first legacy game that was not based on a previously existing product, the mechanic became one of the hotter things in game design 2019 October 8, Eric Thurm, Avidly Reads Board Games, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 118:
The social deception game Blood on the Clocktower has recently used this mechanic to significant effect to create a legacy version of Mafia. 2023 November 24, Devon Allcoat, Chris Evans, Meaningful Game Design: The Methodology and Psychology of Tabletop Games, CRC Press, →ISBN:
cmn 遺留的 /遗留的 (left behind, old or no longer in active use) · ru унасле́дованный (left behind, old or no longer in active use) · it vecchio (left behind, old or no longer in active use) · no foreldet (left behind, old or no longer in active use) · es legado (left behind, old or no longer in active use) · de hinterlassen (left behind, old or no longer in active use) · de vererbt (left behind, old or no longer in active use) · sh starudija (left behind, old or no longer in active use) · fi vanha (left behind, old or no longer in active use) · fi vanhentunut (left behind, old or no longer in active use) · it abbandonato (left behind, old or no longer in active use) · ro moștenit (left behind, old or no longer in active use) · de tradiert (left behind, old or no longer in active use) · es heredado (left behind, old or no longer in active use) · de Alt- (left behind, old or no longer in active use)
From Middle English legacie, from Old French legacie and Medieval Latin lēgātia, from Latin lēgātum. Compare legatee.
The boardgame sense was coined by game designer Rob Daviau in 2011 with the game Risk Legacy.
Meanings
Money or property bequeathed to someone in a will.
Something inherited from a predecessor or the past.
And judging by how well the progressive and youth-favoured party did, many observers suspect this latest round of legal charges are a response to Future Forward's commitment to undo the legacy of military rule and undertake democratic reforms. 2019 April 6, Caleb Quinley, “Thailand: Anti-military party leader faces sedition charges”, in Al Jazeera, Doha: Al Jazeera, retrieved 06 Apr 2019:
John Muir left as his legacy an enduring spirit of respect for the environment.
During the first year or so of British Railways, some of the simpler and more obvious inter-regional transfers of outlying sections were effected, such as those of the London, Tilbury & Southend Railway from the London Midland Region to the Eastern Region; the South Wales lines of the former L.M.S.R. to the Western Region; the Carlisle-Silloth branch (an L.N.E.R. legacy of a North British "border raid") to the London Midland, and so on. 1951 April, D. S. Barrie, “British Railways: A Survey, 1948-1950”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 224:
As the country reckons with how to prevent more children from being killed at school, the legacies of the Parkland victims live on. 2023 February 14, Holly Yan, “5 years after the Parkland school massacre claimed 17 lives, here’s what has changed (and what hasn’t)”, in CNN:
The descendant of an alumnus, given preference in academic admissions.
Because she was a legacy, her mother's sorority rushed her.
es legado (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · tl pamana (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · nb arv (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · fi perintö (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · pl spuścizna (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · de Wirken (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · la lēgātum (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · id warisan (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · th มรดก (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · sv legat (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · fi legaatti (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · ja 遺産 (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · id warisan (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · de Vermächtnis (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · ko 유산 (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · ca llegat (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · grc κληρονομία (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · ce даьхни (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · no legat (the descendant of an alumnus) · tr miras (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · cmn 遺產 /遗产 (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · ba мираҫ (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · cmn 校友子女 (the descendant of an alumnus) · nb legat (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · et pärand (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · ca llegat (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · nb arv (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · hy ժառանգություն (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · it lascito (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · ro moștenire (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · sh nasleđe (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · ar إرْث (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · kea erdansa (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · ky мурас (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · pt legado (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · cs dědictví (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · nn arv (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · ba мираҫ (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · it retaggio (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · wa eritance (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · pl dziedzictwo (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · nl erfgoed (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · wa eritaedje (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · pl zapis (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · az miras (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · ro moștenire (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · ar تَرِكَة (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · az miras (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · gl legado (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · de Vermächtnis (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · el κληρονομιά (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · sh nasljeđe (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · bg наследство (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · az irs (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · ce битам (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · th มรดก (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · fr héritage (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · ce тӏаьхье (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · fr legs (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · fo arvur (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · mi whakareretanga (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · cmn 遗产 (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · fr legs (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · eo heredaĵo (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · vi di sản (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · de Hinterlassenschaft (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · sh nasl(j)edstvo (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · da arv (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · ce битам (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · ky мурас (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · gl legado (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · de Erbe (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · nl legaat (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · no arv (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · hy ժառանգություն (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · bg наследство (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · pt legado (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · id legasi (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · is arfleifð (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · sh zav(j)eštanje (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · sh legat (the descendant of an alumnus) · fi perintö (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · sa रेक्णस् (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · sv arv (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · it eredità (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · tl pamana (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · it eredità (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · es legado (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · nl erfenis (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · ru насле́дство (money or property bequeathed to someone in a will) · it lascito (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · tr miras (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage) · ru насле́дие (something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage)