ancestry

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

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

Pronunciation
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈæn.sɛs.tɹi/
  • Audio (Berkshire, UK))(file)

Noun

ancestry (plural ancestries)

  1. Condition as to ancestors; ancestral lineage; hence, birth or honorable descent.
    Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible. -Addison.
    • 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.
  2. A series of ancestors or progenitors; lineage, or those who compose the line of natural descent.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for ancestry in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)

Synonyms

Translations
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