You searched for: “ancestors
ancestor (s) (noun), ancestors (pl)
1. Anyone from whom someone else is directly descended; especially, somebody more distant than a grandparent; such as, grandparents, great-grandparents; great-great-grandparents, etc.: Jennifer told her friends that some of her ancestors lived when George Washington was president of the U.S.
2. An animal or plant from which a species has evolved.
3. A device that was an earlier form of a modern invention or was used as a basis for developing it; such as, an object, idea, style, or occurrence serving as a prototype, forerunner, or inspiration to a later one.
4. A person from whom an heir derives an inheritance.
5. Etymology: from Old French ancestre or Modern French ancĂȘtre which is from Late Latin antecessor, "predecessor"; literally, "foregoer"; from Latin antecessus, past participle of antecedere, "to precede", from ante-, "before" + cedere, "to go, to give way".
This entry is located in the following units: ante-, ant- (page 1) -cede, -ceed, -cess, -cease (page 1)
(fluid of life from ancestors, parents, and transfusions; something that survives by circulating)
Word Entries containing the term: “ancestors
Ancestors or Greek origins for the English words referring to child or boy

Any time a student refers to a teacher as a pedagogue he or she is not suggesting that the teacher has feet which are a foot-and-a-half (sesquipedalian) long.

The Greek ped used in English is a shortened form of the Greek pais (paid-), which means a "child", usually a "boy" because, in old Grecian times, boys were considered "more important" than girls.

Actually, pedagogue means "a child's guide" or "guiding a child". In ancient Athens, the pedagogue was a slave who led his master's children (boys) to school or provided private tutoring. In the U.S., the equivalent of "guiding a child" is now "home schooling". In time, the word became known as a "teacher".

This Greek ped is used primarily in technical terms; such as pedagogics, which refers to the "science of teaching". There is more information about pedoagogue, pedagog on this page.

Another derivative from the Greek ped is a word meaning "education" or the results of "education"; such as, "knowledge" or "learning". The Greek element pedia is found in other Greek words; such as, cyclopedia and encyclopedia, "circles of knowledge".

This entry is located in the following unit: pedo-, paedo-, ped-, paed-, paido-, paid- (page 1)
Ancestors or Latin origins of words in English (carpet, scarce, excerpt):
It appears to be impossible that such far-flung words as carpet, scarce, and excerpt all come from the same Latin verb; however, they do, and their histories show the astonishing and unpredictable way some words have developed.

The word carpet, for example, ultimately derives from the Latin carpo, which meant to "pluck" or to "card" wool, and it is believed that the first carpets were of wooly cloth made of unravelled threads.

Then there is the term scarce, which English inherited from the French escars, "scanty", originally from the Latin ex, "out", and carpo, "pluck". It's like "plucking" from the cookie jar until the cookies become "scanty" and scarce.

Another related word is excerpt, from Latin excerptus (ex, "out" and carpo, "pluck") which refers to something that has been "plucked out" of its context.

The result is that the idea of "plucking" streams through the three widely divergent words just as a scarce thread of color can be woven through the carpet with which this excerpt started.

These basic words and their related forms can be seen in this carpo-, carp- (cerp-) unit of "to pluck, to pick out, to gather, to select" words.

This entry is located in the following unit: carpo-, carp- (cerp-) + (page 1)