forefather - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English forefader, forfader, vorvader, from Old English forefæder (“forefather”), but possibly also merged with Old Norse forfaðir. Equivalent to fore- +‎ father. Compare Dutch voorvader (“forefather”), German Vorvater, Vorfahr (“forefather”), Danish forfader (“forefather”), Swedish förfader (“forefather”).

forefather (plural forefathers)

  1. An ancestor.
    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter II, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      His forefathers had been, as a rule, professional men—physicians and lawyers; his grandfather died under the walls of Chapultepec Castle while twisting a tourniquet for a cursing dragoon; an uncle remained indefinitely at Malvern Hill; an only brother at Montauk Point having sickened in the trenches before Santiago.
  2. A cultural ancestor; one who originated an idea or tradition.

ancestor