scion

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
7
Words With Friends
9
Letters
5
Pronunciation
/ˈsaɪən/
See all 3 pronunciations
/ˈsaɪən/ · /ˈsaɪ.ən/ (US) · /ˈsaɪ.ɑn/ (US)

Definition of scion

4 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. 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.”
    “Rudolf was the bold, bad Baron of traditional melodrama. Irene was young, as pretty as a picture, fresh from a music academy in England. He was the scion of an ancient noble family; she an orphan without money or friends.”
    “It was said to him that those people were the scions of Zion.”
    “He could show his parents Eliot, scion of Derek Moulthorp, and then how could they say he was throwing his life away?”
See all 4 definitions

noun

  1. 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.”
    “Rudolf was the bold, bad Baron of traditional melodrama. Irene was young, as pretty as a picture, fresh from a music academy in England. He was the scion of an ancient noble family; she an orphan without money or friends.”
    “It was said to him that those people were the scions of Zion.”
    “He could show his parents Eliot, scion of Derek Moulthorp, and then how could they say he was throwing his life away?”
  2. The heir to a throne.
  3. A guardian.
  4. 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, […]”
    “He used to think that the plums in this country weren’t good enough, and so he has reformed them, grafting scion to rootstock.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

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…

See full 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.

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