noun

ancestor

AN-ses-ter/ˈænsestər/

An earlier forebear from whom a later form descends.

The family tree identifies the young woman's grandmother as an ancestor.

A young woman holds a framed portrait of her grandmother beside a small, wordless family tree connecting the grandmother, mother, and herself, making direct descent explicit.

Etymology

anLatinbefore

+cestLatinto go

+orLatinone who

An ancestor is literally a “fore-goer,” someone who goes before another. The broader meaning “predecessor” became specifically a family predecessor from whom someone descends.

In context

Kurimeo Ahau22:02

all persons descended from negro ancestors though one ancestor of each generation may have been a white person

When Juries Decided Your Race | Virginia’s Hidden Racial History

More examples

The museum displays an ancestor of the modern bicycle.
Several of his ancestors worked in the same coastal village.
This wild plant is an ancestor of a familiar cultivated crop.

Forms

ancestor · ancestors

ancestral adjective — Relating to or inherited from earlier forebears.

ancestry noun — Descent from earlier family generations.

Similar words

forebear: Usually refers to a person in a family line.
predecessor: Can come earlier without a relationship of direct descent.