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I'm not quite sure how to phrase my question...but anyways.

History and heritage are often confused with one another. "Heritage is owned by someone or some group; history is not. History is what people study in order to preserve and extend their heritage."

So, in a relationship between history and heritage, is history the 'hypernym' and heritage the 'hyponym'?

I am not sure how correct these terms are, as it is my first time seeing them. I found them, with examples, on this website: http://www.fun-with-words.com/nym_words.html

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    Heritage is owned by someone or some group; history is not. History is what people study in order to preserve and extend their heritage.
    – John Lawler
    Commented May 10, 2014 at 17:30
  • @JohnLawler yes, that clarifies it more, thank you. However, hypernym and hyponym?
    – kayla-rose
    Commented May 10, 2014 at 17:57
  • Hi, Kayla-rose, and welcome to EL&U.
    – anongoodnurse
    Commented May 10, 2014 at 18:15

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Heritage comes from the root inherit, while history comes from the root historia (to enquire). They are not related in a hypernym/hyponym way. On your page, there are examples of hyper/hyponyms; chair and furniture, for example. Given:

dog :: Border Collie

Dog is a hypernym of Border Collie, and Border Collie is a hyponym of dog.

No such relationship exists between history and heritage.

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