'Progenitor' is Latin for 'one who begets forward' — an ancestor from whom a line of descent proceeds.
A direct ancestor; a person or thing from which others originate; a forerunner or predecessor.
From Latin 'progenitor' (ancestor, founder of a family line), from 'progignere' (to beget and send forth, to produce offspring), a compound of 'pro-' (forth, forward) + 'gignere' (to beget, to bring into being). The Latin 'gignere' is a reduplicated form built on PIE *genh1- (to give birth, beget, generate), one of the most pervasive roots in the Indo-European family tree. This root produced Latin 'genus' (race, kind), 'gens' (clan, people), 'genius' (guardian spirit, innate power — literally the begetting spirit of a family line), 'indigenous' (
The legal term 'primogeniture' — the right of the firstborn to inherit — combines 'primus' (first) with 'genitura' (begetting). English inheritance law was governed by primogeniture from the Norman Conquest until 1925. The eldest son inherited everything, a system literally named after the act of being 'first-begotten.'