View synonyms for ancestor

ancestor

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

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a person from whom one is descended; forebear; progenitor.
Biology. the actual or hypothetical form or stock from which an organism has developed or descended.
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.
a person who serves as an influence or model for another; one from whom mental, artistic, spiritual, etc., descent is claimed:
a philosophical ancestor.
Law. a person from whom an heir derives an inheritance.

ancestor

/ ˈænsɛstə /

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

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

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

There is also a mysterious Moomin ancestor who lives permanently in the stove.

Natives from all over the New World could host a great celebration to honor their oldest ancestor.

It is possible to name an ancestor to this obsessive-compulsive noir: David Lynch.

Soon after he was seen stumping for the Assad regime in his ancestor's conflagrated homeland.

Schiele is, if nothing else, an ancestor of the best in long-legged fashion illustration.

He married the widow of —— Bradley, and was the ancestor of the baronets of Caversham, extinct in 1774.

There could not, indeed, be stronger evidence that man has descended from a quadruped ancestor.

In an occasional horse the long-lost stripes of the zebra-like ancestor reappear.

As regards the pointed ear of man's probable ancestor, Darwin calls attention to what seems a trace in man of the lost tip.

This is by no means to suggest that some one of the existing anthropoid apes is the direct ancestor of man.

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