Dictionary Definition
ancestor n : someone from whom you are descended
(but usually more remote than a grandparent) [syn: ascendant, ascendent, antecedent, root] [ant: descendant]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
Old English ancestre, auncestre, also ancessour; the first forms from Old French ancestre, French ancêtre, from the Latin nom. antessor one who goes before; the last form from Old French ancessor, from Latin acc. antecessorem, from antecedere to go before; ante before + cedere to go. See Cede, and compare with Antecessor.Pronunciation
IPA: WEAE /ˈæn.sɛs.tɚ/ or /-toɹ/Noun
(female ancestress)- 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.
- (Biology) An earlier type; a progenitor
- This fossil animal is regarded as the ancestor of the horse.
- (Law) One from whom an estate has descended;—the correlative of heir.
Translations
one from whom a person is descended
an earlier type
Extensive Definition
An ancestor is a parent or (recursively) the
parent of an ancestor (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent,
great-great-grandparent,
great-great-great-grandparent,
great-great-great-great-grandparent,
and so forth).
Two individuals have a genetic relationship if one is
the ancestor of the other, or if they share a common ancestor. In
evolutionary theory,
species who share an evolutionary ancestor are said to be of
common
descent. However, this concept of ancestry does not apply to
some bacteria and
other organisms capable of horizontal
gene transfer.
Assuming that all ancestors are unrelated, an
individual has 2n ancestors in the nth generation before him and
about 2g+1 total ancestors in the g generations before him. In
practise, however, it's clear that the vast majority of ancestors
of humans (and indeed any other species) are somehow related.
Consider n = 40: the human species is surely more than 40
generations old, yet the number 240 dwarfs the number of humans
that have ever lived.
Some cultures place great reverence on ancestors,
both living and dead; contrastingly, people in more youth-oriented
cultural contexts may display a lesser degree of veneration for
elders. In other cultural contexts, some people seek providence
from their deceased ancestors; this practice is sometimes known as
ancestor
worship or, more accurately, ancestor veneration.
As far as contribution to ones autosomal DNA is
concerned (this does not include Y-chromosomal DNA or mitochondrial
DNA) assuming that none of one's ancestors had children with
relatives (even distant relatives), an individual has a total of
2046 ancestors up to the 10th generation, 1024 of which are
10th-generation ancestors. With the same assumption, Any given
person has over a million 20th-generation ancestors (generally
equivalent to around 500 years) and this theoretical number
increases past the total population of the world at around 1400 AD.
See also
ancestor in German: Ahn
ancestor in Spanish: Ancestro
ancestor in Hindi: पूर्वज
ancestor in Dutch: Voorouder
ancestor in Japanese: 先祖
ancestor in Portuguese: Antepassado
ancestor in Simple English: Ancestor
ancestor in Slovenian: Prednik
ancestor in Finnish: Vainaja
ancestor in Swedish: Förfäder
ancestor in Contenese: 祖先
ancestor in Chinese: 祖先
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
ancestress, announcer, antecedent, ascendant, avant-garde,
begetter, bellwether, buccinator, bushwhacker, explorer, forebear, forefather, foregoer, forerunner, front runner,
frontiersman,
fugleman, grandparent, groundbreaker, guide, harbinger, herald, innovator, lead runner,
leader, messenger, parent, pathfinder, pioneer, point, precedent, precursor, predecessor, premise, primogenitor, procreator, progenitor, progenitress, progenitrix, prototype, scout, stormy petrel, trailblazer, trailbreaker, vanguard, vaunt-courier,
voortrekker