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An earlier type; a progenitor; as, this fossil animal is regarded as the ancestor of the horse.

Ancestral. Grote.

With regard to ancestors.

nstant, but step by step. Barrow. Descent is the title whereby a man, on the death of his ancestor, acquires his estate, by right of representation, as his heir at law. Blackstone.

Related or akin by the father's side; also, sprung from the same male ancestor.

Pertaining to descent by the male line of ancestors. "The agnatic succession." Blackstone.

Of, pertaining to, derived from, or possessed by, an ancestor or ancestors; as, an ancestral estate. "Ancestral trees." Hemans.

A female ancestor.

Condition as to ancestors; ancestral lineage; hence, birth or honorable descent. Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible. Addison.

ericans, or to the descendants of Englishmen in America. -- n. A descendant from English ancestors born in America, or the United States. Anglo-Danish, a. Of or pertaining to the English and Danes, or to the Danes who settled in England. Anglo-Indian, a. Of or pertaining to the English in India, or to the English and…

An ancestor; a progenitor. [Obs.]

Time. -- Heir apparent (Law), one whose to an estate is indefeasible if he survives the ancestor; -- in distinction from presumptive heir. See Presumptive.

An ancestor, or one who precedes in genealogy or degrees of kindred; a relative in the ascending line; a progenitor; -- opposed to descendant. Ayliffe.

. -- Ascending line (Geneol.), the line of relationship traced backward or through one's ancestors. One's father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, etc., are in the line direct ascending. -- Ascending node having, that node of the moon or a planet wherein it passes the ecliptic to proceed northward. It is also…

Pertaining to a remote ancestor, or to atavism.

e of a species in the progeny of its varieties; resemblance to remote rather than to near ancestors; reversion to the original form.

A grandfather, or ancestor. "His great belsire Brute." [Obs.] Drayton.

Relationship by descent from a common ancestor; consanguinity; kinship. To share the blood of Saxon royalty. Sir W. Scott. A friend of our own blood. Waller. Half blood (Law), relationship through only one parent. -- Whole blood, relationship through both father and mother. In American Law, blood includes both half bl…

e or collection of families, united under a chieftain, regarded as having the same common ancestor, and bearing the same surname; as, the clan of Macdonald. "I have marshaled my clan." Campbell.

Descending from the same stock or ancestor, but not in the same line or branch or one from the other; -- opposed to lineal.