ancestry

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English auncestrie, also auncetrie,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman ancestrie (“ancestral descent, lineage”), also auncestrie, a legal word recorded from before 1309,^[3] formed from ancestre (“ancestor”) and the suffix -ie.^[3][4] Most dictionaries describe it instead as an alteration of Old French ancesserie (“ancestry, forefathers”), from ancessour (“ancestor”), with the spelling remodelled after ancestor;^{[5][6][7][8][9]} the OED compares that form and ancessorie, recorded from about 1170 for hereditary right and lineage.^[3] The Anglo-Norman ancesserie is recorded from 1160–74 for forefathers and for lineage.^[10] The French noun for ancestor goes back to Latin antecessor (“predecessor, one who goes before”),^[5][8] from antecēdō (“to go before, precede”), formed from ante- (“before”) and cēdō (“to go”).^[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person's ancestors taken together, and a line of descent: both senses are in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle (before 1338, in a manuscript of about 1400).^[3][2] Chaucer and Gower each use the word once.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English of auncestrie meant of high lineage, of gentle birth,^[2] and the word long carried the specific sense of noble or ancient descent, which Collins still records.^[3][12][4] Johnson (1755) defined it as lineage, a series of ancestors, and quoted Spenser's Faerie Queene.^[13] The modern sense often refers to ethnic or national origin.^[3] From 1837 the word was applied to the pedigree of a domestic animal or cultivated plant, and later to the evolutionary line of descent of an organism;^[3] from 1880 it was also used of the origin or historical development of a thing.^[3][4]

Timeline

• before 1338 – ancestors collectively; ancestral lineage.^[3][2]
• c. 1410 – of auncestrie, of gentle birth, in a manuscript of Chaucer's Parson's Tale.^[2]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as lineage, a series of ancestors.^[13]
• 1837 – the pedigree of an animal or plant; evolutionary line of descent.^[3]
• 1880 – the origin or historical development of something.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person's line of descent; lineage, often with regard to ethnic or national origin: She is proud of her Norwegian ancestry.^[6][12][3]
2. Noble or ancient descent; good birth.^[6][12][3]
3. A person's ancestors taken together.^[12][3][6]
4. The pedigree of an animal or plant, or the evolutionary line from which an organism descends.^[3]
5. The origin or historical development of a thing.^[3][6]

Related words

• ancestor
• ancestral
• antecedent
• predecessor
• cede

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.