From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishancestoran‧ces‧tor /ˈænsəstə, -ses- $ -sestər/ ●●○ noun [countable] 1 FAMILYa member of your family who lived a long time ago → descendant My ancestors were French.► see thesaurus at relative2 an animal that lived in the past, that modern animals have developed from Lions and house cats evolved from a common ancestor (=the same ancestor).3 FIRSTthe form in which a modern machine, vehicle etc first existed SYN forerunnerancestor of Babbage’s invention was the ancestor of the modern computer. —ancestral /ænˈsestrəl/ adjective the family’s ancestral home
Examples from the Corpus
ancestor• There had been twelve of the chairs originally, made in 1750 for an ancestor of ours in Jamestown.• During the festival of Obon, Japanese show respect to their dead ancestors.• It is also found at all levels, not just among our nearest evolutionary ancestors, the monkeys and the apes.• It's no surprise to learn that she numbers among her ancestors the Brothers Grimm.• His ancestor had been Gia Long, the emperor whose cause had been helped by Pigneau de Behaine.• My ancestors originally came form Ireland.• Blood, he tells us, was associated by our ancestors with iron, because of the red that hides within the ore.• Most of Luke's ancestors were Italian.• About 7 million years ago the ancestors of mankind began to diverge from the ancestors of modern chimpanzees.• This form developed bipedalism and other adaptations to the newly opening arid savannah landscape and eventually became the ancestor of man.• Ray was knocking them down one by one, unlike his tragic ancestor who only knocked himself down.Origin ancestor (1300-1400) Old French ancestre, from Latin antecessor “one who goes before”, from antecedere; → ANTECEDENT 