an·ces·try

(ăn′sĕs′trē)

n. pl. an·ces·tries

1. Ancestral descent or lineage.

2. Ancestors considered as a group.

[Middle English auncestrie, alteration (influenced by auncestre, ancestor) of Old French ancesserie, from ancessour, ancestor, from Latin antecessor; see ancestor.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ancestry

(ˈænsɛstrɪ)

n, pl -tries

1. lineage or descent, esp when ancient, noble, or distinguished

2. ancestors collectively

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

an•ces•try

(ˈæn sɛs tri; esp. Brit. -sə stri)

n., pl. -tries.

1. ancestral descent; lineage.

2. honorable or distinguished descent: famous by title and ancestry.

3. a series of ancestors.

4. the origin of a phenomenon, object, idea, or style.

5. the history or developmental process of a phenomenon, object, idea, or style.

[1300–50]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	ancestry - the descendants of one individual; "his entire lineage has been warriors" blood line, bloodline, lineage, pedigree, stemma, line of descent, parentage, blood, origin, descent, stock, line kinfolk, kinsfolk, phratry, family line, sept, folk, family - people descended from a common ancestor; "his family has lived in Massachusetts since the Mayflower" side - a family line of descent; "he gets his brains from his father's side" family tree, genealogy - successive generations of kin
	2.	ancestry - inherited properties shared with others of your bloodline filiation, lineage, derivation hereditary pattern, inheritance - (genetics) attributes acquired via biological heredity from the parents descent, extraction, origin - properties attributable to your ancestry; "he comes from good origins" bloodline, pedigree - ancestry of a purebred animal

ancestry

noun origin, house, family, line, race, stock, blood, ancestors, descent, pedigree, extraction, lineage, forebears, antecedents, parentage, forefathers, genealogy, derivation, progenitors They can trace their ancestry back to the seventeenth century.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

ancestry

noun

One's ancestors or their character or one's ancestral derivation:

birth, blood, bloodline, descent, extraction, family, genealogy, line, lineage, origin, parentage, pedigree, seed, stock.

Translations

سِلْسِلَة السَّلَف وَالأجْداد

původrod

slægt

Abstammung

ascendencia

forfeîur, ætterni

ascendenza origine presentire

ætt aner slekt

predniki

atalarecdat

世系

ancestry

[ˈænsɪstrɪ] N (= lineage) → ascendencia f, linaje m; (= noble birth) → abolengo m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

ancestry

[ˈænsɛstri] n

(= ancestors) → ancêtres mpl, aïeux mpl

(= lineage) → ascendance f
of Japanese ancestry → d'ascendance japonaise
to trace one's ancestry → constituer son arbre généalogique

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

ancestry

n (= descent) → Abstammung f, → Herkunft f; (= ancestors) → Ahnenreihe f, → Familie f; to trace one’s ancestry → seine Abstammung zurückverfolgen; of royal ancestry → königlicher Abstammung or Herkunft

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

ancestry

[ˈænsɪstrɪ] n (origin) → lignaggio, ascendenza, stirpe f; (forebears) → antenati mpl

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

ancestor

(ˈӕnsistə) , ((American) -ses-) – feminine ˈancestress – noun

a person who was a member of one's family a long time ago and from whom one is descended.

anˈcestral (-ˈses-) adjective

ˈancestry – plural ˈancestries – noun

a line of ancestors coming down to one's parents. He is of noble ancestry.

ancestry

n. ascendencia; extracción étnica, raza; alcurnia.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Yea, more than equally, thought Ahab; since both the ancestry and posterity of Grief go further than the ancestry and posterity of Joy.

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More than once I have tried to picture myself in the position of a boy or man with an honoured and distinguished ancestry which I could trace back through a period of hundreds of years, and who had not only inherited a name, but fortune and a proud family homestead; and yet I have sometimes had the feeling that if I had inherited these, and had been a member of a more popular race, I should have been inclined to yield to the temptation of depending upon my ancestry and my colour to do that for me which I should do for myself.

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As it is of the utmost importance for Society that Irregular births should be discouraged, it follows that no Woman who has any Irregularities in her ancestry is a fit partner for one who desires that his posterity should rise by regular degrees in the social scale.

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He is fitter to do the juggling tricks of the Norman chivalry than to maintain the fame and honour of his English ancestry with the glaive and brown-bill, the good old weapons of his country.''

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He was very proud of his old Virginian ancestry, and in his hospitalities and his rather formal and stately manners, he kept up its traditions.

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She had a cultivated mind, and was, generally speaking, rational and consistent; but she had prejudices on the side of ancestry; she had a value for rank and consequence, which blinded her a little to the faults of those who possessed them.

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Many moons ago, when he had been much smaller, he had desired the skin of Sabor, the lioness, or Numa, the lion, or Sheeta, the leopard to cover his hairless body that he might no longer resemble hideous Histah, the snake; but now he was proud of his sleek skin for it betokened his descent from a mighty race, and the conflicting desires to go naked in prideful proof of his ancestry, or to conform to the customs of his own kind and wear hideous and uncomfortable apparel found first one and then the other in the ascendency.

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"Never be ashamed of your ancestry. An' remember, God loves the Irish--Kwaque!

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If ancestry is worth anything it should at least teach us to go about without pinning our hearts upon our sleeves."

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Then, examining the mesh of events in her own life, she seemed to see the vanity of her father's pride; the gentlemanly suitor awaiting herself in her mother's fancy; to see him as a grimacing personage, laughing at her poverty, and her shrouded knightly ancestry. Everything grew more and more extravagant, and she no longer knew how time passed.

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They know that I am the daughter of ten thousand jeddaks, that I trace my ancestry straight back without a break to the builder of the first great waterway, and they, who do not even know their own mothers, are jealous of me.

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Instead were these frail creatures who had forgotten their high ancestry, and the white Things of which I went in terror.

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