ancestry

English

Alternative forms

• ancestrie (obsolete)
• auncestrie (obsolete)
• auncestry (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English auncestrie, from Old French ancesserie. See ancestor.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæn.sɛs.tɹi/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

ancestry (plural ancestries)

1. The state of being ancestors
2. birth to a noble or high-ranking family, or to someone of honorable descent.
   • August 1 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian volume 123

     Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible.

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: SSV Normandy:

     Tali: My people place a high value on family and ancestry. There's an unspoken expectation that I'll live up to my father's example.

3. A series of ancestors; the people from whom one is descended

   Synonym: lineage

   I can trace my ancestry back to the 18th century.

Synonyms

• provenance

Derived terms

• coancestry

 

Related terms

• ancestor
• ancestral

Translations

condition as to ancestors

• Asturian: llinaxe m, ascendencia f
• Catalan: llinatge (ca) m, ascendència (ca) f
• Dutch: voorouders (nl), afstamming (nl)
• French: ascendance (fr) f
• Galician: xaramea f, alcuña f, fonduxe f, castuaxe f, avoenga f, tronquidade f, ascendencia f, liñaxe (gl) f
• German: Vorfahren (de) m pl
• Greek: γενεαλογία (el) f (genealogía), καταγωγή (el) f (katagogí), γενεαλογικό δένδρο n (genealogikó déndro), πρόγονοι (el) m pl (prógonoi)
• Italian: ascendenza (it) f, stirpe (it)
• Persian: پروز (fa) (parvaz)
• Polish: pochodzenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: ascendência (pt) f
• Russian: родосло́вная (ru) f (rodoslóvnaja), происхожде́ние (ru) n (proisxoždénije)
• Scottish Gaelic: sinnsearachd f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: порекло n / поријекло n

  Roman: poreklo (sh) n / porijeklo (sh) n, postanak (sh), preci (sh)

• Spanish: linaje (es) m, ascendencia (es) f, abolengo (es), alcurnia (es)
• Welsh: ach f

series of ancestors or progenitors

• Finnish: syntyperä (fi), suku (fi), esi-isät
• German: Vorväter (de) pl, Ahnen (de) pl or m
• Italian: avi (it) m pl, antenati (it) m pl, progenitori (it) m pl
• Ottoman Turkish: صوی (soy), نسل (nesl)
• Polish: przodkowie m pl

References

• “ancestry”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.