English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From Latin antecessor. Doublet of ancestor.

Noun edit

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,[3]
      [] the Waldenses[,] Antecessors of the Protestants
    • 1810, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Notes on a Barrister’s Hints on Evangelical Preaching”, in Henry Nelson Coleridge, editor, The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge[4], London: W. Pickering, published 1839, page 343:
      Yet who says, I have faith in the existence of George II., as his present Majesty’s antecessor and grandfather?
    • 1890, Grant Allen, chapter 23, in The Great Taboo[5], London: Chatto & Windus, page 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[6], 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[7], 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[8], London, Chapter 11, Dialogue 13, p. 926:
      [] promises made to Abraham, and to other antecessors of the Iewes,
    • 1992, Lynne Bowen, chapter 1, in Muddling Through: The Remarkable Story of the Barr Colonists[9], Vancouver: Douglas & MacIntyre, page 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 edit

  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.”[1]
  2. ^ Elisha Coles, An English Dictionary, London: Peter Parker, 1677: “Antecessours, [] Fore-fathers.”[2]

Anagrams edit

Catalan edit

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

antecessor m (plural antecessors, feminine antecessora)

  1. predecessor

Related terms edit

Latin edit

Etymology edit

Compound of ante +‎ cedo +‎ -tor.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

antecessor m (genitive antecessōris); third declension

  1. predecessor
  2. vanguard, scout

Declension edit

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 edit

References edit

Portuguese edit

Etymology edit

Learned borrowing from Latin antecessōrem.

Pronunciation edit

 
 

  • Hyphenation: an‧te‧ces‧sor

Noun edit

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

  1. predecessor (one who precedes)
    Synonym: predecessor