primogenitor
(praɪməʊˈdʒɛnɪtə(r))
[a. med.L. prīmōgenitor (1361 in Du Cange), f. L. prīmō adv., at first, first + genitor begetter, genitor, after L. prīmōgenitus; so OF. primogeniteur (1340 in Godef.).]
First parent, earliest ancestor; loosely, ancestor, forefather, progenitor.
| 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes iv. 181 If your primogenitors be not belied, the generall smutch you have, was once of a deeper black, when they came from Mauritania into Spain. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 211 The supposition of our being punished for the offence of our primogenitor. 1824 Mirror III. 402/2 The male descendants of our great primogenitor. 1888 Hasluck Model Engin. Handybk. (1900) 2 A model of this, the primogenitor of the modern steam-engine, can be bought..for one penny. |
Hence primoˈgenitrix, a first female ancestor.
| 1875 M. Collins Fr. Midnight to Midn. III. xii. 202 Fluent as that ‘affable archangel’ who delighted our primogenitrix. |