the.com/heiress

means A woman who has inherited, or stands to inherit, a great deal of wealth or property.

from From "heir" plus the feminine suffix "-ess." "Heir" itself came into English from Old French "heir," descended from Latin "heres," meaning one who inherits — possibly tied to an ancient root suggesting "orphaned" or "bereft," a fittingly grim seed for a word now draped in pearls. The "-ess" ending arrived from French "-esse" (via Latin "-issa," ultimately Greek), the same suffix that gives us "countess" and "princess," attaching itself to "heir" a few centuries into the word's English life to mark the woman who would do the inheriting.