scion
nounUK /ˈsaɪən/ · US /ˈsaɪ.ən/
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.
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.1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in The Last Man. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 15:
- 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.1956, Delano Ames, chapter 9, in Crime out of Mind:
4 more examples
- It was said to him that those people were the scions of Zion.1966, Sholem Aleichem, An Early Passover, paperback edition, Clifton Pub. Co., page 24:
- He could show his parents Eliot, scion of Derek Moulthorp, and then how could they say he was throwing his life away?1986, David Leavitt, The Lost Language of Cranes, paperback edition, Penguin, page 72:
- It also made her the target of angry derision back in South Korea, where Ms. Cho is the scion of one of the wealthy families that control much of South Korea’s export-driven economy.2014 December 31, Martin Fackler, “Court Orders Arrest of Ex-Executive at Korean Airlines Over ‘Nut Rage’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- Her father, Carter Burden Sr., was a handsome scion of the Vanderbilt dynasty.2026 January 11, Alex Kuczynski, “Her Life Was an Old-Money Dream. It Collapsed in a Moment.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
2
The heir to a throne.
3
A guardian.
4
Biology, Botany, Natural sciences 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, […]1613, G[ervase] M[arkham], “Of the Setting or Planting of the Cyons or Branches of Most Sorts of Fruit-trees”, in The English Husbandman. The First Part: […], London: […] T[homas] S[nodham] for Iohn Browne, […], →OCLC, 2nd part (Contayning the Art of Planting, Grafting and Gardening, […], page 132:
- He used to think that the plums in this country weren’t good enough, and so he has reformed them, grafting scion to rootstock.2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 681: