| 释义 |
ancestor, n.|ˈænsɪstə(r)|
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. anteˈcēssor, and ancesor, ancessor, -ur, -our, acc. (Pr. ancessor):—L. antecēsˈsōrem, 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., anceˈssour soon became obs.; anˈcestre became phonetically anˈcetre, ˈaunceter, of which the regular mod. form, now dialectal, is ˈanceter or ˈanster; 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; ˈauncitor 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. a. 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.’
1297R. Glouc. 193 Vor þyn auncetres dude al, þat we þe hoteþ do. c1300Beket 428 Bi the kyng Henries dai, that oure ancestre was. 1330R. Brunne Chron. 166 The lond..that thin ancessour So wele kept biforn. 1393Gower Conf. iii. 182 That her auncestre brake the lawe. c1400Rom. Rose 391 Tyme, that eldith our auncessours. 1447O. Bokenham Lyvys of Seyntys 64 Oure aunsetrys us beforn. a1450Knt. de la Tour (1868) 4 Stories, the whiche hathe ben wretin bi oure aunsetters. 1475Bk. Noblesse (1860) 10 Geffrey Plantagenet youre noble auncetour. c1535Ld. La Warr in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. II. 134 There lyethe many of my aunsytorys. 1579Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arber) 26 The Trophees and Triumphes of our auncestours. 1596Bp. Barlow 3 Serm. i. 19 Our auncestors were woont to say. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. iv. 61 When I am sleeping with my Ancestors. 1601Holland Pliny (1634) II. 152 Our auncitors..haue giuen vs counsell. 1614Raleigh Hist. World ii. 284 Hercules..the Ancester of the Macedonian Kings. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 894 Eldest Night and Chaos, ancestors of Nature. 1756Burke Vind. Nat. Soc. Wks. I. 12 We owe an implicit reverence to all the institutions of our ancestors. 1793― Discuss. Trait. Corresp. Bill, The wisdom of our ancestors. 1855Milman Lat. Chr. (1864) I. ii. i. 106 St. Peter..the spiritual ancestor of the Bishop of Rome. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 315 The ancestors of the gigantic quadrupeds [i.e. dray-horses]..were brought from the marshes of Walcheren. [1881Evans Leicestersh. Wds. 91 Ancetor var. of ancestor.]
b. attrib.
1854Wesleyan Methodist Mag. X. 623 Ancestor-worship..has linked and attached itself most powerfully to the heart of every Chinese. 1883Miss Simcox in Academy 14 Apr. 249/3 A real domestic ancestor cult. 1883Maine Early Law & Custom iii. 55 Ancestor-worship, the worship of father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, has among the Hindus a most elaborate liturgy and ritual. 1928C. Dawson Age of Gods iii. 47 The churingas or ‘ancestor stones’ of the modern Australian natives. 1936C. Day Lewis in Day Lewis & Stebbing Imag. & Thinking 11 The profound desire for a feeling of continuity, to which some of us young poets have applied the expression ‘ancestor-worship’. 1957V. W. Turner Schism & Cont. in Afr. Soc. p. xxi, The misfortunes of life..are attributed to the punitive action of ancestor spirits.
c. Law. A person who precedes another in the course of inheritance, and from whom an inheritance is derived, whether in the direct line of descent or not: correlative to heir. collateral ancestor: see collateral a. 4.
1628Coke Littleton 380 b, If lands had beene giuen to the husband and wife and their heires, and the husband had made a Feoffement to another, to whom a Collaterall Ancester of the wife had released and died. 1651,1767[see heir n. 1]. 1768,1809[see ancestral a. 1 b.] 1959Jowitt Dict. Eng. Law I. 116/2 Under the law as it stood before the Law of Property Act, 1925, an ancestor meant any person from whom real property was inherited.
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.’
1863Ramsay Phys. Geol. (1878) 359 Elephas antiquus, the ancestor of the African elephant. 1882Geikie 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.
Hence ˈancestor v. trans., to be the ancestor of; also transf.; ˈancestored |-əd| ppl. a., having an ancestor or ancestors (of a specified kind); ˈancestorship, the position of an ancestor.
1776H. Walpole Let. 9 Sept. (1904) IX. 412 Few men are so well ancestored in so short a compass of time. 1853Tait's Mag. XX. 604 The thorough-bred, orientally ancestred horse. 1883Max Müller India, What can it teach Us? vii. 239 Ancestorship as a natural ingredient of religion among all savage nations. 1921Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Feb. 92/2 Their younger brother ancestored the well-known family of Howard-Vyse, of Stoke Place, Slough. 1940Bryant & Aiken Psychol. of English iv. 33 The Ursprache which ancestored our own English. |
