ancestor
Plural: ancestors
Noun
- someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)
- 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; a forebear.
- 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.
Verb
Verb Forms: ancestored, ancestoring, ancestors
- To be an ancestor of something or someone.
- To be an ancestor of.
Examples
- Did you know that the word ’travel’ can ancestor the word ’travail’?
- This fossil animal is regarded as the ancestor of the horse.
Origin / 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.
Synonyms
antecedent, ascendant, ascendent, root, ancestor, fore-elder, forebear, forefather, forerunner, origin, predecessor, progenitor, reflex, source
Antonyms
Scrabble Score: 10
ancestor: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordancestor: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
ancestor: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary