ancestor
Meaning
-
- One from whom a person is descended, whether on the father's or mother's side, at any distance of time; a progenitor; a forefather.
- An earlier type; a progenitor
- One from whom an estate has descended;—the correlative of heir.
- One who had the same role or function in former times.
- A word or phrase which serves as the origin of a term in another language.
Synonyms
male ancestor
father’s father
old person
previous existence
previous position
predecessor organization
predecessor organisation
fore-runner
fore father
first ancestor
ancester
Frequency
Hyphenated as
an‧ces‧tor
Pronounced as (IPA)
/ˈæn.sɛs.tɚ/
Etymology
From Middle English ancestre, auncestre, ancessour; the first forms from Old French ancestre (modern French ancêtre), from the Latin nominative antecessor (“one who goes before”); the last form from Old French ancessor, from Latin antecessōrem, accusative of antecessor, from antecēdō (“to go before”) + -tor (“-er”), from ante- (“before”) + cēdō (“to go”). See cede, and compare with antecessor.
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