ancestress
1
8.4
- noun
- /ˈæn.sɛs.trəs/
:
ancestro femenino
- It is a named, corporate, and exogamic descent group, composed of uterine kinsmen who descend from a common ancestress who lived four or five generations before the current adult generation.
Examples
-
The ancestress wasn't.
Blog text (19) -
Her ancestress, a wise healer, passed down her knowledge through generations.
-
Her ancestresses, about whom she thought increasingly often, would probably have been dead by the age she had reached.
Fiction book (1994) -
Searching through her school's archives, Griffin discovered a nineteenth-century academic ancestress.
Fiction book (1993) -
I'll speak to Sebell." "I never thought to have the chance to honor our brave ancestress," Larad said, and floundered once again.
Fiction book (1991) -
Those who claimed a common (and known) ancestress constituted a matrilineage, which was the most important family unit in Creek society.
Academic text (1990) -
Like the unnamed ancestress of the painting, Isa leads us "down green glades into the heart of silence" (49).
Fiction book (1993) -
Robinton felt an unexpected closure of his throat at the thought of the tributes arranged for this fabled ancestress.
Fiction book (1991) -
The bulky headdress takes the form of a box containing a diorama of carved figures (most importantly the founding ancestress).
Academic text (1998) -
In addition, Christianity's requirement for modesty and the bangles' association with the ancestress Mma Esekpa create a moral conflict for the young women.
Academic text (2008)
Synonyms
419
2.4
A person in your family who lived long ago before your grandparents
43
1.3
A woman who is the mother of your grandparent
15
2.3
A person who is the parent of your grandparent
2
7.4
A person in your family who lived before you, like a great-grandparent
1
8.4
A woman from an earlier generation who starts a family or tradition
1
8.9
A family member who lived before you, for example a grandparent
1
9.3
A person in your family from long ago, like a grandparent
A woman who starts a family line
An ancestor in your family from earlier times
A person in your family from an earlier time, for example a parent
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Ancestress comes from ancestor plus the female ending -ess, like actress for a woman actor. Ancestor comes from an old part meaning 'before', so an ancestress is a woman who came 'before' you in your family and from whom your family comes.