ancestor

B2 · Upper Intermediate Countable noun Science

n. an early type of animal or machine that later versions developed from.

n. an earlier type of a species or a mechanical device that served as a precursor to modern forms.

日本語:祖先※

“The small, three-toed horse is a distant ancestor of the modern horse.”

“The massive mainframe computers of the 1960s are the direct ancestors of the sleek laptops we use today.”

C1 · Advanced Countable noun Science Technical

n. a word from an old language that a modern word comes from.

n. a word or phrase in a parent language that serves as the etymological origin for a term in a daughter language.

“The Latin word 'pater' is the ancestor of the English word 'father'.”

“Linguists reconstructed the Proto-Indo-European ancestor of several modern European verbs to understand how the grammar evolved over millennia.”

C2 · Proficiency Countable noun Law Formal · Technical

n. the person who owned a property or land before the current owner inherited it.

n. the person from whom an estate or title has been derived by right of inheritance.

“The family could trace the ownership of the farm back to a single ancestor.”

“Under the current statutes, the rights of the heir are strictly tied to the contractual obligations left by the ancestor.”

C2 · Proficiency Formal

v. to be the person or thing that someone or something else comes from.

v. to function as the progenitor or earlier version of a specific descendant.

“These ancient traditions ancestor many of the customs we still practice today.”

“It is theorised that a small population of flightless birds ancestored the diverse species now found across the archipelago.”