ancestry - Wiktionary, the free dictionary


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From Middle English auncestrie, from Old French ancesserie. See ancestor.

ancestry (plural ancestries)

  1. The state of being ancestors
  2. birth to a noble or high-ranking family, or to someone of honorable descent.
    • August 1 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian volume 123

      Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible.

    • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: SSV Normandy:

      Tali: My people place a high value on family and ancestry. There's an unspoken expectation that I'll live up to my father's example.

  3. A series of ancestors; the people from whom one is descended
    Synonym: lineage

    I can trace my ancestry back to the 18th century.

condition as to ancestors