See Also: Ancestor(medicine)
ancestor(dictionary)
ancestor(dictionary)
Ancestor(health)
mort d'ancestor(dictionary)
ancestor worship(encyclopedia)
ANCESTOR, descents(law)
MORT D' ANCESTOR(law)
MORT D'ANCESTOR(law)
ASSIZE OF MORT D' ANCESTOR(law)

ancestor (iou)



ancestor noun. ME.
[Old French ancestre (mod. ancetre) from Latin antecessor, formed as ANTE- + cess- pa. ppl stem of cedere go: assim. to -OR.]
A person, usu. more remote than a grandparent, from whom one is descended; a forefather. Also transf. & fig., an animal from which another is (remotely) descended; a source, a precursor. ME.
H. H. Milman St. Peter..the spiritual ancestor of the Bishop of Rome. M. C. Self It is believed that his [the Suffolk's] ancestors were the horses of the Norsemen. F. Fitzgerald In the rites of ancestor worship the child imitated the gestures of his grandfather.
Law. A person who precedes another in the course of inheritance. E17.
An animal or other organism from which another has evolved. M19.
B. J. Williams The reptilian ancestors of mammals.
ance'storial adjective (now rare) = ANCESTRAL M17.
ancestress noun a female ancestor L16.