Päritav

Päritav is an Estonian adjective meaning hereditarry or inheritable. It describes traits or characteristics that can be transmitted from parents to offspring through genetic material, or more broadly through other inheritance mechanisms. In genetics the term denotes that a property has a genetic basis and can be passed to subsequent generations, as opposed to traits determined solely by environmental factors. Päritav can refer to individual traits or to more general genetic characteristics of populations.

In population genetics, heritability is a statistical concept that estimates the proportion of observed variation in a trait attributable to genetic differences among individuals in a given population and environment. A trait may be highly päritav in a population but show little predictive value for any single individual.

Examples commonly described as päritav include certain physical features and inherited genetic conditions. However, many traits are influenced by multiple genes and environmental factors, making their päritavus partial or complex. The term is often used in contrast with environmentally determined or non-heritable traits.

Related terms in Estonian include pärilik (hereditary, genetic) and pärilikkus (heredity, heritability).