ancestor

[ an-ses-teror, especially British, -suh-ster ]

noun

1. a person from whom one is descended; forebear; progenitor.
2. Biology. the actual or hypothetical form or stock from which an organism has developed or descended.
3. an object, idea, style, or occurrence serving as a prototype, forerunner, or inspiration to a later one:

   The balloon is an ancestor of the modern dirigible.

4. a person who serves as an influence or model for another; one from whom mental, artistic, spiritual, etc., descent is claimed:

   a philosophical ancestor.

5. Law. a person from whom an heir derives an inheritance.

ancestor

/ ˈænsɛstə /

noun

1. often plural a person from whom another is directly descended, esp someone more distant than a grandparent; forefather
2. an early type of animal or plant from which a later, usually dissimilar, type has evolved
3. a person or thing regarded as a forerunner of a later person or thing

   the ancestor of the modern camera

Derived Forms

• ˈancestress, noun:feminine

Word History and Origins

Origin of ancestor¹

1250–1300; Middle English ancestre < Old French (with t developed between s and r ) < Latin antecessor antecessor

Word History and Origins

Origin of ancestor¹

C13: from Old French ancestre, from Late Latin antecēssor one who goes before, from Latin antecēdere; see antecede

Example Sentences

This is the type of monarchy embodied by Prince Carlo’s Bourbon ancestor, that very same Louis XIV who ruled by divine right and sought absolute power.

From Slate

“I just Googled an ancestor’s name and their Find a Grave Page popped up,” O’Donnell told me.

From Slate

This includes crabs, which evolved from the common ancestor of all crabs, and it includes other kinds of crustaceans with completely different ancestors, occupying a different branch of the evolutionary tree — yet a total plagiarism of the idea of crab.

From Salon

It started with the recent ancestor of XEC, KP.3.3, which exhibits a mutation that undoes destroying the essential transcription region of N* so the N* protein can’t be produced.

From Salon

Cyrus and Parton’s mutual ancestor, John Brickey, lived in Tennessee’s Blunt County not far from where Dollywood is today, Access Hollywood revealed.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• forebear
• forefather
• founder