forebear

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forebear

ancestor; forefather; progenitor: My forbears came over on the Mayflower.

Not to be confused with:

forbear – refrain or abstain from; to forgo: I’ll forbear the dessert, thank you.

fore·bear

also for·bear (fôr′bâr′)

A person from whom one is descended; an ancestor. See Synonyms at ancestor.

[Late Middle English (Scottish) forbear : Middle English fore-, fore- + beer, one who is (from ben, to be; see be + -er, -er; see -er¹).]

Usage Note: Etymologically, a forebear is a "a fore-be-er," a person who has existed in earlier times. But because the -bear part of this word is pronounced to rhyme with the verb bear, people apparently conceive of the word's meaning as "a person who has given birth in earlier times," or "a person who has borne burdens in earlier times," as if it was a compound of the prefix fore- and the verb bear. The existence of the verb forbear has probably reinforced this notion, even though that verb means "to restrain oneself from doing something" and has lost its original meaning of "to endure." At any rate, the noun forebearer is sometimes found in place of forebear even in edited prose in sentences like His forebearers had crossed the Appalachians shortly after the American Revolution. The Usage Panel rejects this usage strongly but not overwhelmingly. In fact, 36 percent accepted this sentence in our 2008 survey, suggesting that forebearer may soon be a word whose time has come.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

forebear

(ˈfɔːˌbɛə) or

forbear

an ancestor; forefather

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

fore•bear

for•bear

(ˈfɔrˌbɛər, ˈfoʊr-)

n.

ancestor; forefather.

[1425–75; Middle English (Scots) =fore- fore- + -bear being, variant of beer]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

forebear - a person from whom you are descended

forbear

ancestor, antecedent, ascendant, ascendent, root - someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)

grandparent - a parent of your father or mother

great grandparent - a parent of your grandparent

forebear

noun ancestor, father, predecessor, forerunner, forefather, progenitor I'll come back to the land of my forebears.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

forebear

noun

A person from whom one is descended:

ancestor, antecedent, ascendant, father, forefather, foremother, mother, parent, progenitor.

Archaic: predecessor.

Translations

antecesor antepasado

vedi forbear

forebear

[ˈfɔː^rbɛə^r] n → ancêtre m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

forebear

n (form) → Vorfahr(in) m(f), → Ahn(e) m, → Ahne f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

forebear

[ˈfɔːˌbɛəʳ] n → antenato/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

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References in classic literature ?

Presently the willows parted on the other bank, and Robin could hardly forebear laughing out right.

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It was in the dusk of Death's fluttery wings that Tarwater thus crouched, and, like his remote forebear, the child-man, went to myth-making, and sun-heroizing, himself hero-maker and the hero in quest of the immemorable treasure difficult of attainment.

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Go in, my lord; Go home, my brother, and forebear to make A public scandal of a petty grief.

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He had, in Castra Regis, a large collection of curious and interesting things formed in the past by his forebears, of similar tastes to his own.

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And I have heard curses launched at the unstable element itself, whose fascination, outlasting the accumulated experience of ages, had captured him as it had captured the generations of his forebears.

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But there are just a few little local patches, dying out here and there for lack of--well, hoeing and cross-fertilising: the last remnants of the old European tradition that your forebears brought with them.

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The black, whipping out his knife, turned to do battle with this new enemy, while the Swede, lying in the bush, witnessed a duel, the like of which he had never dreamed to see--a half-naked white man battling with a half-naked black, hand to hand with the crude weapons of primeval man at first, and then with hands and teeth like the primordial brutes from whose loins their forebears sprung.

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From this primitive function has arisen, unquestionably, all the forms and ceremonials of modern church and state, for through all the countless ages, back beyond the uttermost ramparts of a dawning humanity our fierce, hairy forebears danced out the rites of the Dum-Dum to the sound of their earthen drums, beneath the bright light of a tropical moon in the depth of a mighty jungle which stands unchanged today as it stood on that long forgotten night in the dim, unthinkable vistas of the long dead past when our first shaggy ancestor swung from a swaying bough and dropped lightly upon the soft turf of the first meeting place.

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Doubtless in our own subjective minds lie many of the impressions and experiences of our forebears. These may impinge upon our consciousness in dreams only, or in vague, haunting suggestions that we have before experienced some transient phase of our present existence.

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Like the wolves, their forebears, their nutritive processes were rigidly economical and perfect.

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From some great throne within, your forebears may have directed the destinies of half the world.

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It was a token that he was harking back through his own life to the lives of his forebears; for he was a civilized dog, an unduly civilized dog, and of his own experience knew no trap and so could not of himself fear it.