a slip or cutting of a tree or plant used for grafting, hence a young shoot or twig. In a transferred sense the word is used of the heir or any young member of a family, a descendant. The word in O. Fr. was cion or syon, mod. scion, and the early forms in English are syon, cion or cyon. These forms seem to disprove the usual etymology, which connects it with Fr. scier, to cut, Lat. secare.