antecessor

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.[1]

   Synonyms: precursor, predecessor

   Antonym: successor

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

     […] 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,

     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,

     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,

     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.[2]

   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,

     […] 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,

     […] 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,

     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.

References

1. Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, London: James and John Knapton, 1728, Volume 1, p. 106: “ANTECESSOR, one that goes before, or leads another. […] The Term is particularly used in some Universities for a Professor, who teaches, or lectures the Civil Law.”
2. Elisha Coles, An English Dictionary, London: Peter Parker, 1677: “Antecessours, […] Fore-fathers.”

Anagrams

• censorates

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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

Compound of ante +‎ cedo +‎ -tor.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /an.teˈkes.sor/, [än̪t̪ɛˈkɛs̠ːɔr]
• (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

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 (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎, pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “antecessor”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 24: Refonte A–Aorte, page 642

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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/

• Hyphenation: an‧te‧ces‧sor

Noun

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

1. predecessor (one who precedes)

   Synonym: predecessor