Latin for 'one who went before' — a hidden member of the family that includes 'precede,' 'succeed,' and 'cede.'
A person from whom one is descended, especially one more remote than a grandparent; an early form of something from which later forms developed.
From Old French "ancestre" (ancestor, forebear), from Latin "antecessor" (predecessor, one who goes before), composed of "ante-" (before) + "cessōr" (one who goes), from "cēdere" (to go, yield). The PIE root is *ḱed- (to go, walk), which also yields Sanskrit "a-sad-" (to approach) and possibly Lithuanian "kedėti" (to go slowly). The Latin prefix "ante-" derives from PIE *h₂ent- (front, forehead, before), connecting "ancestor" to a deep concept
Most English speakers do not realize that 'ancestor' belongs to the same word family as 'proceed,' 'succeed,' and 'exceed.' The Latin root 'cēdere' (to go) is disguised by centuries of sound changes: Latin 'antecessor' became Old French 'ancestre,' which lost the '-cess-' entirely. The word 'antecedent,' borrowed later