Ancestor

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: an=ces=tor

CIDE DICTIONARY

Ancestor, n. [OE. ancestre, auncestre, also ancessour; the first forms fr. OF. ancestre, F. ancêtre, fr. the L. nom. antessor one who goes before; the last form fr. OF. ancessor, fr. L. acc. antecessorem, fr. antecedere to go before; ante before + cedere to go. See Cede, and cf. Antecessor.].

•  One from whom a person is descended, whether on the father's or mother's side, at any distance of time; a progenitor; a fore father.  [1913 Webster]
•  An earlier type; a progenitor; as, this fossil animal is regarded as the ancestor of the horse.  [1913 Webster]
•  One from whom an estate has descended; -- the correlative of heir.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Ancestor, n. (fem. ancestress)
1 any (esp. remote) person from whom one is descended.
2 an early type of animal or plant from which others have evolved.
3 an early prototype or forerunner (ancestor of the computer).

Etymology

ME f. OF ancestre f. L antecessor -oris f. antecedere (as ANTE-, cedere cess- go)

THESAURUS

Ancestor

ancestress, announcer, antecedent, ascendant, avant-garde, begetter, bellwether, buccinator, bushwhacker, explorer, forebear, forefather, foregoer, forerunner, front runner, frontiersman, fugleman, grandparent, groundbreaker, guide, harbinger, herald, innovator, lead runner, leader, messenger, parent, pathfinder, pioneer, point, precedent, precursor, predecessor, premise, primogenitor, procreator, progenitor, progenitress, progenitrix, prototype, scout, stormy petrel, trailblazer, trailbreaker, vanguard, vaunt-courier, voortrekker

ROGET THESAURUS

Ancestor

Paternity

N paternity, parentage, consanguinity, parent, father, sire, dad, papa, paterfamilias, abba, genitor, progenitor, procreator, ancestor, grandsire, grandfather, great- grandfather, fathership, fatherhood, mabap, house, stem, trunk, tree, stock, stirps, pedigree, lineage, line, family, tribe, sept, race, clan, genealogy, descent, extraction, birth, ancestry, forefathers, forbears, patriarchs, motherhood, maternity, mother, dam, mamma, materfamilias, grandmother, paternal, parental, maternal, family, ancestral, linear, patriarchal, avi numerantur avorum, happy he with such a mother, hombre bueno no le busquen abolengo, philosophia stemma non inspicit.