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anatto |
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ancestor
| ancestor worship
| ancestorial
| ancestorially
| ancestors
| ancestral
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WORDNET DICTIONARY
CIDE DICTIONARY
OXFORD DICTIONARY
THESAURUS
ROGET THESAURUS
ancestor
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun ancestor has 1 sense
- ancestor(n = noun.person) antecedent, ascendant, ascendent, root - someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent); Array has particulars: ancestress, forbear, forebear, father, forefather, sire, foremother, primogenitor, progenitor
is a kind of relation, relative
Derived forms adjective ancestral1, adjective ancestral2
Antonym: descendant
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).
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, voortrekkerROGET 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.
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