primogenitor
Americannoun
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a first parent or earliest ancestor.
Adam and Eve are the primogenitors of the human race.
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a forefather or ancestor.
noun
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a forefather; ancestor
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an earliest parent or ancestor, as of a race
Etymology
Origin of primogenitor
1645–55; < Late Latin prīmōgenitor ancestor, equivalent to Latin prīmō at first + genitor genitor
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Hinton had been working on neural networks since his undergraduate days at Cambridge in the late 1960s, and he is seen as the intellectual primogenitor of the contemporary field.
From New York Times • Dec. 14, 2016
At around the 18-minute mark in this movie rosily extolling the virtues of the American highway, there are about 30 seconds of footage from the primogenitor of the genre.
From Slate • Nov. 25, 2015
Since 1966, when he broke his neck in a motorcycle accident, he has avoided reporters almost entirely�much to the despair of millions of young people who idolize him as a primogenitor of the rock generation.
From Time Magazine Archive
This tiny, nameless primogenitor of all living matter may have used some primitive kind of photosynthesis to reproduce itself.
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
