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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A direct ancestor. See Synonyms at ancestor.
  2. n. An originator of a line of descent; a precursor.
  3. n. An originator; a founder: progenitors of the new music.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. An ancestor in the direct line; a forefather; a parent.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A forefather, any of a person's direct ancestors
  2. n. An individual from whom one or more people (dyansty, tribe, nation...) are descended.
  3. n. An ancestral form of a species
  4. n. A predecessor of something, especially if also a precursor or model.
  5. n. Someone who originates something.
  6. n. A founder

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. An ancestor in the direct line; a forefather.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. an ancestor in the direct line

Etymologies

  1. Middle English progenitour, from Old French progeniteur, from Latin prōgenitor, from prōgenitus, past participle of prōgignere, to beget : prō-, forward; see pro-1 + gignere, gen-, to beget; see genə- in Indo-European roots.

Examples

  • “The progenitor is a crook named Armen Boladian who forged George Clinton's signature on an assignment of copyright and has now become a one-man lawsuit factory who threatens legal action against the entire hip-hop world (avid Clinton samplers) unless they pay him tribute.”

    Boing Boing: November 12, 2006 - November 18, 2006 Archives

  • “Another obvious literary progenitor is Cormac McCarthy: Reading "Smonk" conjured up the memory of murderous necrophile Lester Ballard from McCarthy's "Child of God.”

    Around & About

  • “Male pattern baldness: A decline in activity by a special type of stem cell, known as a progenitor cell, found in human hair follicles appears to be responsible for male pattern baldness, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Getting Closer to the Root of What Causes Baldness

  • “You have been called the progenitor of the modern African novel, and Things Fall Apart has maintained its resonance in the decades since it was written.”

    An African Voice

  • “Jacob fled ... served -- Though ye pride yourselves on the great name of "Israel," forget not that your progenitor was the same Jacob who was”

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

  • “But more mature cells called progenitor cells were lacking in the bald areas.”

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed

  • “Although bald areas had the same number of hair-making stem cells as normal scalp, there were fewer of a more mature type, called the progenitor cell.”

    BBC News - Home

  • “He may be known as the progenitor of the Army's present counterinsurgency strategy, or COIN, the man who dusted off that failed, long discarded doctrine from the”

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com

  • “Juicy, isn’t it, that Shakespeare is sometimes attributed to none other than Sir Francis Bacon, widely known as progenitor of modern empirical science he introduced deduction and abstraction on the basis of negation and exclusion, long before Popper articulated falsification, and inspiration for the first modern research institute, the , Royal Society.”

    Jesting with Adjusters « Climate Audit

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‘progenitor’ has been looked up 1324 times, loved by 3 people, added to 38 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 13.