Today's Word "Progenitor"
Published in Vocabulary
progenitor \preh-JEN-eh-tehr\ (noun) - 1 : The originator or original ancestor of a line of descent, a direct ancestor; 2 : the founder of a family; 3 : the originator of anything, a founder, as the progenitor of a philosophical school.
"While Jews and Christians hold Adam and Eve to be the progenitors of all humankind, it is certainly true that we are all progeny of one couple at some point way back in prehistorical time."
From Latin "progenitor," the noun of progignere "to beget." This word is based on pro- "forward" + gignere, gen- "to beget," containing the same gen- that we see in "generate," "generation," "gender" and "genus." It appears without the vowel all but hidden in "pregnant," from the Latin word meaning "before giving birth." In English this root became "kin," also seen in "kindred" from Old English cyn "race, family, kin" but also "king" from a time when ruling had genetic connotations. "Kind" originally meant pretty much the same thing as Latin "genus," so it should come as no surprise that they both derived from the same Proto-Indo-European root word.
Comments