Progenitor
[prə(ʊ)'dʒenɪtə] or [pro'dʒɛnɪtɚ]
Definition
(n.) An ancestor in the direct line; a forefather.
Checker: Sabina
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Ancestor, forefather.
Checked by Lemuel
Examples
- This machine was called the Draisine and undoubtedly was the progenitor of the modern bicycle. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- Well,' continued his progenitor, looking round him very cautiously, 'you and I'll go, punctiwal to the time. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- But a cross between an ape and a man might show the characteristics of either progenitor? Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- There may be, there probably are, thousands of deposits still untouched containing countless fragments and vestiges of man and his progenitors. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Small portable clocks, the progenitors of the modern watch, commenced to appear about 1500. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- One's mind hurries back over past centuries, and then asks, could our progenitors have been men like these? Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- The gunpowder experiments of Huygens and Papin were not successful, but they were the progenitors of similar inventions made two centuries thereafter. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- I hope that I may not be misconstrued into saying that the progenitors of whales did actually possess mouths lamellated like the beak of a duck. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- I believe that animals are descended from at most only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
Edited by Alison