predecessor
(priːdɪˈsɛsə(r), prɛd-)
Also 6 præ-; 5–6 predy-, predi-; 4 -ur, 5 -ar, 5–7 -our, -oure, 7 -er.
[ME. predecessour = F. prédécesseur (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. late L. prædēcessor (Rutil. c 420), f. præ, pre- A. + dēcessor one who goes away, departs, or dies, agent-n. from dēcēdĕre to go away, depart. Often used as the equivalent of L. præcessor, antecessor.]
1. One who has held (and ceased to hold) any office or position before the present holder; one who has preceded in the position.
| [1292 Britton i. i. §6 Si la fraunchise ne soit graunté..par nous ou par nos predecessours.] c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints x. (Mathou) 326 Of þi predecessare. Ibid. xxxi. (Eugenia) 416 Þe emperoure Oto, þat wes predecessoure Of þe gud emperoure henry. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. 464 The newe pope..whiche also lyke to his predecessour was a Frensheman. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 307 b, My predecessours, Byshoppes of Rome. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 163 The Elephant..with his teeth digged up the ground and shewed her the naked body of her predecessor, intimating thereby..how unworthily she had marryed with a man, murtherer of his former wife. 1768 Gray in Corr. w. Nicholls (1843) 83 Next day Hinchliffe made his speech, and said not one word (though it is usual) of his predecessor. 1861 Craik Hist. Eng. Lit. I. 83 Eadmer's immediate predecessor in the see of St. Andrews was Turgot. |
b. A thing to which another has succeeded.
| 1742 Young Nt. Th. ii. 319 To-day is Yesterday return'd;..Let it not share its predecessor's fate. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxix. (1856) 248 This is the first clear day..Compared with the gloomy haziness of its predecessors, it was cheering. 1883 Pall Mall G. 2 June Suppl., This Supplement..will be republished together with its predecessor. |
2. An ancestor; a forefather.
| c 1400 Three Kings Cologne 56 Þe kyngis citee þe wich her predecessours and þe Chaldeys of olde tyme had byseged and destruyed. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 199 Somme women haue childer like to theyme, somme like to the fader, and somme like to their predecessores afore tyme. 1553 Eden Treat. Newe India (Arb.) 4 We may perceue such magnanimitie to haue ben in our predicessours. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, i. ii. 248 Your Highnesse..Did claime some certaine Dukedomes, in the right Of your great Predecessor, King Edward the Third. 1656 Cowley Verses Sev. Occas., To Roy. Soc. v, All long Errors of the Way, In which our wandring Predecessors went. 1848 R. I. Wilberforce Doctr. Incarnation xii. (1852) 323 Considering the vast number of ancestors which each individual had in the twenty-seventh generation, there can scarcely have been a Jewish parent in the time of David,..who was not, according to the flesh, a predecessor of our Lord. |
† 3. One who takes precedence. Obs. rare.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 1723 Predicessour of princes & pere to þe sonn. |
† 4. One who goes before as a leader or guide.
| 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy iv. xxxiii. (MS. Digby 230) lf. 154/1 Þat þou shalt firste be my predecessour And goo aforn depe doun in helle. c 1450 tr. De Imitatione iii. lxi. 143 He [Jesus] shal be our helpe, þat is our leder & oure predecessour. 1656 tr. Comenius' Gate Lat. Unl. §955 If they [Christians] knew their own priviledges, and composed themselves according to the pattern of their Predecessor. |
5. attrib. and Comb.
| 1680 E. F. Life Edw. II 21 He exactly follows his Predecessor-precedent to the Life. 1683 J. Wilson in Cloud of Witnesses (1810) 216 That which their great doctor had yielded and their predecessor council had approven. 1723 Dk. Wharton True Briton No. 57 II. 498 This French Author celebrates his Predecessor Countrymen. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. iii. v. (1872) I. 167 ‘The old castle of the Schellenbergs’ (extinct predecessor Line). |
Hence predeˈcessoress, † predeˈcessrix, a female predecessor; predeˈcessorship, the office of a predecessor.
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Decession, a predecessorship, decessio. 1640 R. Baillie Canterb. Self-convict. 119 After the example of his glorious Father and renowned predecesrix Elizabeth. 1822 Blackw. Mag. XII. 657 They will find no obstruction from the melodious pages of their predecessoresses. |