antecessor
(ˌæntɪˈsɛsə(r), ˈæntɪ-)
Forms: 5–7 -cessour, 5 -owr, 5–6 -ur, -sessour, 7 -cesser, 6– antecessor.
[a. MFr. antécesseur, a refashioning of earlier ancesseur ancestor, after L. antecēssōr-em in its L. senses of ‘predecessor in office,’ and ‘professor of law’: see ancestor n.]
1. One who goes before (esp. in office); a predecessor. (The latter word is more common.)
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. ix. 155 Hys Priwalagis..Ðat before hys Antecessowrys gat. 1494 Fabyan vi. clxi. 154 He shulde folowe the stablenes of his antesessours..and ponysshe mysdoers. 1502 Arnold Chron. 213 Our antecessurs and successours. 1636 Prynne Unbish. Tim. & Tit. (1661) 78 Before that he went up to the Apostles his Antecessors. 1789 Smyth tr. Aldrich's Archit. (1818) 54 The custom of all his antecessors in that profession. 1869 Gladstone Juv. Mundi viii. §1. 222 This deity [Zeus] has ancestors and antecessors. |
† b. An ancestor, a progenitor (usually however when viewed as a predecessor). Obs.
| c 1470 Henry Wallace i. 1 Our antecessowris, that we suld of reide..We lat ourslide. 1474 Caxton Chesse 53 Of his grauntsirs fader and of alle his antecessours. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. ccxxxvii. 736 Our fathers and Antecessours of olde tyme. a 1657 Sir J. Balfour Ann. Scotl. (1824) II. 223 Solemley interrid amongest his antecessers. 1660 R. Coke Power & Subj. 210 The Kings noble Progenitors and Antecessors of the Nobles of this Realm. |
† c. A predecessor in the possession of property.
| 1574 tr. Littleton's Tenures 16 b, Writ of assise of the death of hys antecessoure at the common lawe. [1628 Coke On Litt. 78 b, In Law..Antecessor is applyed to a natural person..but Prædecessor is applyed to a body Politique or Corporate. 1809 Bawdwen Domesd. Bk. 624 Robert claims the land of Outi..to be in the soke of his Antecessor Lepi.] |
† 2. A professor of civil law. Obs.
| 1751 Chambers Cycl., Antecessor..is particularly used in some universities for a public professor, who teaches or lectures the civil law. |
† 3. pl. One of the advanced guard of an army. Obs.
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Antecessors, in the antient art of war..a party of horse dispatched before the agmen or body of an army..also denominated Antecursores. |