Descendant vs. Ancestor

By Jaxson

  • Ancestor

    An ancestor or forebear is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an ancestor (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent, and so forth). Ancestor is “any person from whom one is descended. In law the person from whom an estate has been inherited.”

    Two individuals have a genetic relationship if one is the ancestor of the other, or if they share a common ancestor. In evolutionary theory, species which share an evolutionary ancestor are said to be of common descent. However, this concept of ancestry does not apply to some bacteria and other organisms capable of horizontal gene transfer. Some research suggests that the average person has twice as many female ancestors as male ancestors. This might have been due to the past prevalence of polygynous relations and female hypergamy.

    Assuming that all of an individual’s ancestors are otherwise unrelated to each other, that individual has 2n ancestors in the nth generation before him and a total of 2g+1 − 2 ancestors in the g generations before him. In practice, however, it is clear that the vast majority of ancestors of humans (and any other species) are multiply related (see pedigree collapse). Consider n = 40: the human species is more than 40 generations old, yet the number 240, approximately 1012 or one trillion, dwarfs the number of humans who have ever lived.

    Some cultures confer reverence to ancestors, both living and dead; in contrast, some more youth-oriented cultural contexts display less veneration of elders. In other cultural contexts, some people seek providence from their deceased ancestors; this practice is sometimes known as ancestor worship or, more accurately, ancestor veneration.

Wikipedia
  • Descendant (adjective)

    descending from a biological ancestor.

  • Descendant (adjective)

    proceeding from a figurative ancestor or source.

  • Descendant (noun)

    One who is the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations.

    “The patriarch survived many descendants: five children, a dozen grandchildren, even a great grandchild.”

  • Descendant (noun)

    A thing that derives directly from a given precursor or source.

    “This famous medieval manuscript has many descendants.”

  • Descendant (noun)

    A later evolutionary type.

    “Dogs evolved as descendants of early wolves.”

  • Descendant (noun)

    A language that is descended from another.

    “English and Scots are the descendants of Old English.”

  • Descendant (noun)

    A word or form in one language that is descended from a counterpart in an ancestor language.

  • Ancestor (noun)

    One from whom a person is descended, whether on the father’s or mother’s side, at any distance of time; a progenitor; a forefather.

  • Ancestor (noun)

    An earlier type; a progenitor

    “This fossil animal is regarded as the ancestor of the horse.”

  • Ancestor (noun)

    One from whom an estate has descended;—the correlative of heir.

  • Ancestor (noun)

    One who had the same role or function in former times.

Wiktionary

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