ancestor

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A person in your family who lived a long time ago, before your grandparents.

   Her ancestors came to this country over two hundred years ago.

2. 2
   noun

   An earlier form of an animal, machine, or thing from which a later one developed.

   This small fossil animal is regarded as an ancestor of the modern horse.

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₂énts Proto-Indo-European *-i Proto-Indo-European *h₂énti Proto-Italic *anti Latin ante Latin ante- Proto-Italic *kezdō Latin cedo Proto-Indo-European *-tōr Proto-Italic *-tōr Latin -tor Latin antecessor Anglo-Norman auncestrebor. Middle English auncestre English ancestor From Middle English ancestre, auncestre, ancessour; the first forms from Old French ancestre (modern French ancêtre), from the Latin nominative antecessor (“one who goes before”); the last form from Old French ancessor, from Latin anteces…

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