single-word-requests
My daughter is a famous motorcyclist and has to answer hundreds of interviews. In her interviews she says that she is fulfilling her father's "legacy". I have always felt she is using the wrong word.
She could say she is "fulfilling her father's unfulfilled dream".
My daughter wants to use a dramatic word but I feel she is using the wrong one. "Legacy" has to do with money.
Can someone suggest a unique word?
You might say courteous or polite. Both of these suggest an action which is in some sense insincere, but which is motivated for other good and defensible reasons.
I would go with disillusionment.
A feeling of disappointment, akin to depression, arising from the realization that something is not what it was expected or believed to be, possibly accompanied by philosophical angst from having one's beliefs challenged.
An example from vocabulary.com:
Disillusionment is when the hard truth of reality makes you lose faith in your dreams and ideals. Like you might have thought your internship at the movie studio would be super glamorous, but you quickly suffered some disillusionment when you realized it involved 14-hour days and lots of coffee runs.
A deep distinction between disillusionment and disappointment from the book "The Poetics of Disappointment: Wordsworth to Ashbery" By Quinney:
Best Answer
If she is continuing her father's success in a particular activity she may be 'continuing her father's legacy'. This conveys the meaning that her activities are a continuation of what her father had already accomplished. She would only be able to 'fulfil' something her father was unable to accomplish (dreams, lifelong ambition, goal).