Why there is no article before "heire"?

Asked Jun 20 '19 at 13:30

Active Jun 23 '19 at 07:10

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The following passage is from All's Well That Ends Well:

Shee is young, wise, faire, In these, to Nature shee's immediate heire: And these breed honour:

According to the research I did on Cambridge dictionary heir is countable. If so, why there is no article before heire? Likewise, The French finance minister is heir to a tradition of central control that goes back to Louis XIV.

edited Jun 23 '19 at 07:10

asked Jun 20 '19 at 13:30

John Smith

1,748

This is clearly Elizabethan English. The rules were different back then. Further, we usually don't use an article in the expression is heir to, when it's used metaphorically. – Peter Shor Jun 20 '19 at 16:57
Related: Omission of “the” in “elected him president” and “made captain” – herisson Jun 23 '19 at 08:13
1

@sumelic Yes, the first is poetry, auld poetry at that (and hence probably better not analysed according to the usual rules); the second is the null article, as discussed by Lawrence ... after Peter Master (contrasted with the zero article). – Edwin Ashworth Jun 23 '19 at 16:41

Why there is no article before "heire"?

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