means Something handed down from the past — money, property, reputation, or influence passed from those who came before to those who follow.

from From Latin 'legare,' to bequeath or appoint by will (the same root that gives us 'legate' and 'delegate'), via Medieval Latin 'legatia' and Old French 'legacie.' In its earliest English sense, a legacy was quite literal — a gift left to you in someone's will. Only later did it widen to mean anything inherited, including the messier, unbankable things like consequences and reputations.