ancestor

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ancestor

noun ascendant, auctor generis, auctor gentis, forebear, forefather, foregoer, forerunner, genitor, grandsire, parent, patriarch, precursor, predecessor, procreator, progenitor
Associated concepts: ancestral estate, ancestral property, descendant, immediate ancestor, inheritance, lineal ancessor, maternal ancestor, paternal ancestor

ANCESTOR, descents. One who has preceded another in a direct line of descent; an ascendant. In the common law, the word is understood as well of the immediate parents, as, of these that are higher; as may appear by the statute 25 Ed. III. De natis ultra mare, and so in the statute of 6 R. III. cap. 6, and by many others. But the civilians relations in the ascending line, up to the great grandfather's parents, and those above them, they term, majores, which common lawyers aptly expound antecessors or ancestors, for in the descendants of like degree they are called posteriores. Cary's Litt.45. The term ancestor is applied to natural persons. The words predecessors and successors, are used in respect to the persons composing a body corporate. See 2 Bl. Com. 209; Bac. Abr. h.t.; Ayl. Pand. 58.

References in periodicals archive ?

the penned sheep, kill one cow [and] offer aromatic wine [to] Ancestress Geng.

China's first prayer

Two years later she reprised her Ancestress role with comparable effect.

Transitions

my friendJane visits Tiberias the grave of Meir is a magnet for pilgrims but where is the grave of Bruriah she wanders streets puzzled no citizen can tell her where you lie rather they seem appalled or angry at the query nobody has a clue Bruriah my ancestress how when you taught Torah your words rang like a harp so diligent you were such soul you had

Bruriah

Another of Mesopotamia's daughters, the unraced Camogie, became the ancestress of Halling.

Mesopotamia - big word, but even bigger influence; HOME SUCCESS Galileo sires his first ever winner of Racing Post race

Dr Fiona Watson said: "What seems to have happened is that a local family in Ayrshire, the Baileys of Lamington, claiming that their ancestress was this Marion, commissioned another version.

People's hero; Real William Wallace emerges through mists of time as fact is split from fiction

There are other precedents, most particularly in the founder of the Fourteenth Dynasty, whose name (Panehsy) indicates that he was a Nubian, and there are (at least) the Aswani ancestress of the Twelfth Dynasty, and the major Nubian associations of the Eleventh (Morkot, Black Pharaohs, pp.

From Slave to Pharaoh: The Black Experience in Ancient Egypt

As if that wasn't enough to trouble her, she is also haunted by a strange, growing fascination with an ancestress from the distant past, which fuels her feelings of isolation.

BOOKS

Rua means "fish," and his function and integral place within the community is emphasized by his name, which is contained within the name of his ancestress Ngarua.

Patricia Grace. Dogside Story

Her subject is a woman from the late fourteenth century mostly mentioned as the mistress of John of Gaunt and ancestress of Edward IV, Henry VII and the Stuarts.

History today awards 2002. (Frontline)

In chapter four the notion of ancestors appears, seen as a link to the ancestress and with her that of settlement, of origin, of the act of founding, of the fundamental importance of the autochtonous presence; is the residence of the neak ta not most often the hut of the founder?

Le Culte des Genies Protecteurs au Cambodge. Analyse et Traduction d'um Corps de Textes sur les Neak Ta

They plead for protection from the people of Argos, where their ancestress Io was born.

Suppliant Women, The

Strawberry marks on backs or shoulders are scarce, but acrimony is plentiful as Annabelle, sans gypsy ancestress, snags a friendship with Nelson and ultimately a relationship with one of his friends.