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 (ed.), The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, London: W. Pickering, 1839, p. 343,^[4]

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

   • 1890, Grant Allen, The Great Taboo, London: Chatto & Windus, Chapter 23, p. 209,^[5]

     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, Boston: Shambhala, Introduction, pp. 14-15,^[6]

     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, London: Richard Grafton,^[7]

     […] 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, London, Chapter 11, Dialogue 13, p. 926,^[8]

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

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

     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.

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Catalan

Noun

antecessor m (plural antecessors, feminine antecessora)

1. predecessor

Related terms

• antecedència
• antecedent
• antecedentment
• antecedir

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Latin

Etymology

From ante- (“before”) +‎ cēdō (“go”) +‎ -tor (agentive suffix).

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

• English: ancestor, antecessor
• French: ancêtre, antécesseur
• Italian: antecessore

• Norman: anchêtre
• Portuguese: antecessor
• Spanish: ancestro, antecesor

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

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Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin antecessor.

Noun

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

1. predecessor (one who precedes)

Synonyms

• predecessor