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bequeath

Verb
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

To give or leave something to someone, especially after death. In older poetry it can also mean to pass on or hand over.

Detailed Definition
In modern English, bequeath is most often used in legal contexts for leaving property in a will. Vaughan uses it more broadly and poetically for what the speaker's life or scent 'leaves behind' at the end of the poem.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The odor I bequeath” uses bequeath for leaving something behind by will or legacy; Shakespeare’s Sonnet 74 imagines the body’s elements returning while the spirit survives; “I bequeath my books to the child who asks why” makes inheritance intimate and material; contemporary poems may bequeath seeds, languages, or warnings rather than money or land
Additional Notes
The word appears in the line 'The odor I bequeath,' and its older, formal sense may be unfamiliar to many readers.; Found in the poem, Unprofitableness by Henry Vaughan
Also Known As
to leave to pass on to give to entrust
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