ancestral

[an-ses-truhl]

adjective

1. pertaining to ancestors; descending or claimed from ancestors.

   an ancestral home.

2. serving as a forerunner, prototype, or inspiration.

ancestral

/ ænˈsɛstrəl /

adjective

1. of, inherited from, or derived from ancestors

   his ancestral home

noun

1. logic a relation that holds between x and y if there is a chain of instances of a given relation leading from x to y. Thus the ancestral of parent of is ancestor of, since x is the ancestor of y if and only if x is a parent of…a parent of…a parent of y

Other Word Forms

• ancestrally adverb
• nonancestral adjective
• nonancestrally adverb
• pseudoancestral adjective
• pseudoancestrally adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of ancestral¹

1425–75; late Middle English aunce ( s ) trel < Middle French, equivalent to ancestre ancestor + -el -al ¹

Example Sentences

But I cry now—for the first time in years—in the underground corridor of the Ghanaian underworld, all while the ancestral spirit of my grandmother protects me from a trickster god.

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His guest slumped in one of the armchairs that faced the row of ancestral portraits in Lord Fredrick’s study.

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The eyes of the ancestral portraits in Lord Fredrick’s study seemed to stare at her accusingly.

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She sat on a footstool with folded hands before the oversized portrait of her late husband, Lord Edward Ashton, which hung in a row with all the other ancestral portraits that lined the wall.

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It sounds like a marketing pitch and the company's slick packaging promises "ancestral ingredients" and the "power of purple fruits from the forest".

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Related Words

• familial 
• tribal