progenitor.
A forefather, any of a person's direct ancestors.
Meaning & usage
A forefather, any of a person's direct ancestors.
A person from whom one or more people (dynasty, tribe, nation…) are descended.
Abraham, alias Ibrahim, is the presumed progenitor of both the Jewish and Arab peoples.
An ancestral form of a species.
A predecessor of something, especially if also a precursor or model.
ARPANET was the progenitor of the Internet.
Are neural progenitor cells infected by Zika virus?
Someone who originates something.
A founder.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English progenitour, from Anglo-Norman progenitour, Middle French progeniteur (Modern French progéniteur), and their etymon Latin prōgenitor, from prōgenitus, perfect participle of prōgignere (“to beget”), itself from prō- (“forth”) + gignere (“to beget”). By surface analysis, pro- (“prior, fore-”) + genitor.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.