progenitor
/pɹoʊˈd͡ʒɛn.ɪ.tɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.84 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A forefather, any of a person's direct ancestors.
noun
A predecessor of something, especially if also a precursor or model.
noun
Someone who originates something.
noun
A founder.
Example Sentences
- "Abraham, alias Ibrahim, is the presumed progenitor of both the Jewish and Arab peoples."
- "ARPANET was the progenitor of the Internet."
- "Are neural progenitor cells infected by Zika virus?"
- "From its inception, the index has provided a window onto the history of the book, for it took the advent of a particular type of book — the codex, a sheaf of pages fastened along one edge — to make an index a practical possibility. The progenitor of the modern bound book, the codex gradually supplanted the scroll, a medium inimical to the indexer’s art."
Etymology
From Middle English progenitour, from Anglo-Norman progenitour, Middle French progeniteur (Modern French progéniteur), and their etymon Latin prōgenitor, from prōgenitus, perfect participle of prōgignere (“to beget”), itself from prō- (“forth”) + gignere (“to beget”). By surface analysis, pro- (“prior, fore-”) + genitor.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *per-, progenitour, progeniteur, prōgenitor
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /pɹoʊˈd͡ʒɛn.ɪ.tɚ/
- British English: /pɹəʊˈd͡ʒɛn.ɪ.tə/
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
legendary progenitor
progenitor cell