antecessor

English

Alternative forms

• antecessour (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin antecessor. Doublet of ancestor.

Noun

antecessor (plural antecessors)

1. (now rare) A person or thing that precedes or goes before.

   Synonyms: precursor, predecessor

   Antonym: successor

   • 1671, Joseph Glanvill, A Præfatory Answer to Mr. Henry Stubbe, London: J. Collins, p. 57,^[3]

     […] the Waldenses[,] Antecessors of the Protestants

   • 1810, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Notes on a Barrister’s Hints on Evangelical Preaching”, in Henry Nelson Coleridge, editor, The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge‎^[4], London: W. Pickering, published 1839, page 343:

     Yet who says, I have faith in the existence of George II., as his present Majesty’s antecessor and grandfather?

   • 1890, Grant Allen, chapter 23, in The Great Taboo‎^[5], London: Chatto & Windus, page 209:

     This, then, is their horrid counsel and device—that each one of their gods should kill his antecessor.

   • 1994, Thomas Cleary, The Human Element: A Course in Resourceful Thinking‎^[6], Boston: Shambhala, Introduction, pp. 14-15:

     The Book of Change in the general form it is known today [sic] is approximately three thousand years old. It is the third in a series of such texts, its antecessors supposed by some scholars to have been composed six and twelve hundred years earlier.

2. (now rare) A person from whom one is descended.

   Synonym: ancestor

   Antonym: descendant

   • 1547, Arthur Kelton, A chronycle with a genealogie declaryng that the Brittons and Welshemen are linealiye dyscended from Brute‎^[7], London: Richard Grafton:

     […] some, hath iudged wrongfully
     As in reproche, of our country
     Deniyng playne, moste noble Brute
     Our antecessor our stocke and our frute.

   • 1614, Thomas Wilson, A Commentarie upon the Most Divine Epistle of S. Paul to the Romanes‎^[8], London, Chapter 11, Dialogue 13, p. 926:

     […] promises made to Abraham, and to other antecessors of the Iewes,

   • 1992, Lynne Bowen, chapter 1, in Muddling Through: The Remarkable Story of the Barr Colonists‎^[9], Vancouver: Douglas & MacIntyre, page 5:

     At his mother’s knee he had heard of the exploits of her family, which boasted among its antecessors a surgeon on Nelson’s ship at Trafalgar.

Anagrams

• censorates

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ən.tə.səˈso]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [an.te.seˈsoɾ]

Noun

antecessor m (plural antecessors, feminine antecessora)

1. predecessor

Related terms

• antecedència
• antecedent
• antecedentment
• antecedir

Latin

Etymology

Compound of ante +‎ cedo +‎ -tor.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /an.teˈkes.sor/, [än̪t̪ɛˈkɛs̠ːɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /an.teˈt͡ʃes.sor/, [än̪t̪eˈt͡ʃɛsːor]

Noun

antecessor m (genitive antecessōris); third declension

1. predecessor
2. vanguard, scout

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	antecessor	antecessōrēs
Genitive	antecessōris	antecessōrum
Dative	antecessōrī	antecessōribus
Accusative	antecessōrem	antecessōrēs
Ablative	antecessōre	antecessōribus
Vocative	antecessor	antecessōrēs

Descendants

• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Old Romansch: antschuors (plural)
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: ãse̢stro, ãse̢stre̢
  • Old French: ancestre, ancessor
    • French: ancêtre
    • Norman: anchêtre
    • → Middle English: ancestre, ancessour
      • English: ancestor
    • → Spanish: ancestro
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Occitan: ancèstre, ancessor
  • Old Catalan: ancessor
• Borrowings:
  • → English: antecessor
  • → French: antécesseur
  • → Galician: antecesor
  • → Italian: antecessore
  • → Portuguese: antecessor
  • → Romanian: antecesor
  • → Spanish: antecesor
  • → Translingual: Homo antecessor (learned)

References

• “antecessor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• antecessor in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• antecessor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• antecessor in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[10], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “antecessor”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 24: Refonte A–Aorte, page 642

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin antecessōrem.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ɐ̃.te.seˈsoʁ/ [ɐ̃.te.seˈsoh]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ɐ̃.te.seˈsoʁ/ [ɐ̃.te.seˈsoh]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /ɐ̃.te.seˈsoɾ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ɐ̃.te.seˈsoʁ/ [ɐ̃.te.seˈsoχ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ɐ̃.te.seˈsoɻ/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐ̃.tɨ.sɨˈsoɾ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐ̃.tɨ.sɨˈsoɾ/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐ̃.tɨ.sɨˈso.ɾi/

• Hyphenation: an‧te‧ces‧sor

Noun

antecessor m (plural antecessores, feminine antecessora, feminine plural antecessoras)

1. predecessor (one who precedes)

   Synonym: predecessor