ancestrals

Noun

ancestral (plural ancestrals)

1. An ancestor or forbear.
   • Some big cheese bein' grought back to his native island to get planted with his ancestrals.1955, Harry Chandler Elliott, Reprieve from Paradise, page 147
2. (India) A descendant of one's ancestors.
   • He considered that the local custom permitted a sister's son to inherit in default of near male ancestrals.1868, The Punjab Record - Volume 3, page 58
3. An elderly relative.
   • Cadwy and some of the ancestrals carried Gilbert back to the platform to have his wounds healed by Guinevere.2018, R. C. Jette, The Elfdins and the Gold Temple: An Oralee Chronicle
4. A genetic precursor.
   • The intermediate nature of the gene frequencies of the populations in the two groupings to those of the putative ancestrals, Table 4, indicates the Mestizo gentic constitution of the MMA populations and supports previous information for this area (Garza-Chapa 1983b)1987, Human Biology - Volume 59, Issues 1-3 - 4, page 44
5. A forerunner; One who was involved in an earlier version of something.
   • It is hard, remember, to match the craft and proficiency of the ancestrals' bare-bones protocols of turning grapes into raisins, of mastering heat, dirt, and moisture to produce a natural and inexpensive candy.1996, Victor Davis Hanson, Fields Without Dreams: Defending the Agrarian Idea, page 25
6. An earlier version of something.
   • The old ancestrals of the Murray were disrupted and caused to flow along the Gulpa Creek at the toe of the fault escarpment to Deniliquin (Pels 1966). Later the younger ancestrals followed the old for a short distance beyond Tocumwal, left them and formed the Bullatale Creek flood plain.1978, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria - Volume 90, page 75

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