Forms: 3–4 ancestre, 4 aun-; 3–5 auncetre, 4–5 -ceter, -setre, -sestre, ancessour, aun-; 5 ancetor, aunsetter, 5–6 aunciter, -cetour, ansetor, 6 ancytour, -sitor, auncetur, -sytor, 6–7 -citor, auncester, -our, -or, ancester, -our, 6– ancestor. [a. OFr. ancestre, nom.:—L. antecē·ssor, and ancesor, ancessor, -ur, -our, acc. (Pr. ancessor):—L. antecēssō·rem, a foregoer, predecessor, agent-noun f. antecēd-ĕre to precede, f. ante before + cēd-ĕre, cēss-um, to go. The distinction of nom. and acc. was lost before their adoption in Eng., so that they were, as in contemporary Fr., mere synonyms. In Eng., ancessou·r soon became obs.; ance·stre became phonetically ance·tre, au·nceter, of which the regular mod. form, now dialectal, is a·nceter or a·nster; but this was disturbed, on the one hand, by writing the termination (after late AFr.) -our, latinized in 16th c. to -or; and on the other, by spelling with -s-, after later Fr., auncestre. A combination of both gave the 16th-c. spelling auncestour, -or, now ancestor, in which the -s- has come to be pronounced; au·ncitor survived to 17th c. After ancestre became restricted in Fr. to the sense of ‘progenitor,’ ancessour, -eur, was refashioned after L. as antécesseur in the general sense, whence also Eng. ANTECESSOR, and a mixed form ANTECESTRE.]
1. One from whom a person is descended, either by the father or mother; a progenitor, a forefather. (Usually said of those more remote than a grandfather.) Also, of animals, and fig. as ‘spiritual ancestor.’
1297. R. Glouc., 193. Vor þyn auncetres dude al, þat we þe hoteþ do.
c. 1300. Beket, 428. Bi the kyng Henries dai, that oure ancestre was.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 166. The lond … that thin ancessour So wele kept biforn.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 182. That her auncestre brake the lawe.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 391. Tyme, that eldith our auncessours.
1447. Bokenham, Lyvys of Seyntys, 64. Oure aunsetrys us beforn.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1868), 4. Stories, the whiche hathe ben wretin bi oure aunsetters.
1475. Bk. Noblesse (1860), 10. Geffrey Plantagenet youre noble auncetour.
c. 1535. Ld. La Warr, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. II. II. 134. There lyethe many of my aunsytorys.
1579. Gosson, Sch. Abuse (Arber), 26. The Trophees and Triumphes of our auncestours.
1596. Bp. Barlow, 3 Serm., i. 19. Our auncestors were woont to say.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iv. 61. When I am sleeping with my Ancestors.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), II. 152. Our auncitors haue giuen vs counsell.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. 284. Hercules … the Ancester of the Macedonian Kings.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 894. Eldest Night and Chaos, ancestors of Nature.
1756. Burke, Vind. Nat. Soc., Wks. I. 12. We owe an implicit reverence to all the institutions of our ancestors. Ibid. (1793), Discuss. Trait. Corresp. Bill. The wisdom of our ancestors.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr. (1864), I. II. i. 106. St. Peter … the spiritual ancestor of the Bishop of Rome.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 315. The ancestors of the gigantic quadrupeds [i.e., dray-horses] … were brought from the marshes of Walcheren.
[1881. Evans, Leicestersh. Wds., 91. Ancetor var. of ancestor.]
b. attrib.
1883. Miss Simcox in Academy, 14 April, 249/3. The sacra privata of the Romans may have been a survival of a real domestic ancestor cult.
2. Biol. An organized being of a lower or earlier type, whence others of a higher type subsequently existing are, according to the Evolution theory, inferred to have been ‘developed.’
1863. Ramsay, Phys. Geol. (1878), 359. Elephas antiquus, the ancestor of the African elephant.
1882. Geikie, Text-bk. Geol., VI. IV. i. § 1. They [Anchitheria] were about the size of small ponies, had three toes on each foot, and are regarded as ancestors of the horse.
