ancestor : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: ancestor	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for ancestor
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
ancestor n someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent) Synonym(s): ancestor, ascendant, ascendent, antecedent, root Antonym(s): descendant, descendent
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Ancestor \An"cestor\, n. [OE. ancestre, auncestre, also ancessour; the first forms fr. OF. ancestre, F. anc[88]tre, fr. the L. nom. antessor one who goes before; the last form fr. OF. ancessor, fr. L. acc. antecessorem, fr. antecedere to go before; ante before + cedere to go. See {Cede}, and cf. {Antecessor}.] 1. One from whom a person is descended, whether on the father's or mother's side, at any distance of time; a progenitor; a fore father. 2. (Biol.) An earlier type; a progenitor; as, this fossil animal is regarded as the ancestor* of the horse. 3. (Law) One from whom an estate has descended; -- the correlative of heir.