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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Ancestor \An"ces*tor\, noun [OE. ancestre, auncestre, also ancessour; the first forms fr. OF. ancestre, F. anc[^e]tre, 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}.]
1. 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.
2. (Biol.) An earlier type; a progenitor; as, this fossil animal is regarded as the ancestor of the horse.
3. (Law) One from whom an estate has descended; -- the correlative of heir.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
ancestor
noun: someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent) [syn: {ascendant}, {ascendent}, {antecedent}, {root}] [ant: {descendant}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
47 Moby Thesaurus words for "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
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |