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ANCESTRAL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Inherited or inheritable by established rules (usually legal rules) of descent
Example:
transmissible tradition
Synonyms:
ancestral; hereditary; patrimonial; transmissible
Classified under:
Similar:
heritable; inheritable (capable of being inherited)
Domain category:
jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)
Derivation:
ancestor (someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent))
Sense 2
Meaning:
Of or belonging to or inherited from an ancestor
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Pertainym:
ancestor (someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent))
Derivation:
ancestor (someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent))
Context examples:
The DNA showed that, during the last Ice Age, the Atlantic walrus divided into two ancestral lines, which researchers term “eastern” and “western”.
(Lost Norse of Greenland fuelled the medieval ivory trade, ancient walrus DNA suggests, University of Cambridge)
Denotes a person of African ancestral origins whose family settled in the Caribbean region.
(African Caribbean, NCI Thesaurus)
One of two major ancestral groups of Jewish individuals, comprised of those whose ancestors lived in Eastern Europe (Germany, Poland, Russia).
(Ashkenazi Jew, NCI Dictionary)
Denotes a person with African ancestral origins who self identifies, or is identified, as African.
(African, NCI Thesaurus)
A gene from one species which corresponds to a gene in another species that is related via a common ancestral species (a homologous gene), but which has evolved to become different from the gene of the other species.
(Orthologous Gene, NCI Thesaurus)
Dr David Meltzer, from the Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, said: A striking thing about the analysis of Spirit Cave and Lagoa Santa is their close genetic similarity which implies their ancestral population travelled through the continent at astonishing speed.
(Ancient DNA analysis unlocks secrets of Ice Age tribes in the Americas, University of Cambridge)
The Crusaders had brought back with them experiences of domestic luxuries, of Damascus carpets and rugs of Aleppo, which made them impatient of the hideous bareness and want of privacy which they found in their ancestral strongholds.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
His gorgeous pink rag of a suit made a bright spot of color against the white steps and I thought of the night when I first came to his ancestral home three months before.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
