ancestors
ancestors — 名詞
1. A family member from the distant past, going back further than your grandparents
祖先
家族中年代久遠的前輩親屬
A family member from the distant past, going back further than your grandparents.
Yuna traced her ancestors back to a small village in northern Japan.
Yuna 追溯她的祖先，一路找到日本北部的一個小村莊。
traced her ancestors back
Diego discovered that his ancestors had sailed from Spain in the 1700s.
Diego 發現他的祖先在十八世紀從西班牙航行過來。
Abigail keeps a worn leather book full of stories about her ancestors.
Abigail 保存著一本老舊的皮面書，裡面滿是關於她祖先的故事。
The Watanabe family honour their ancestors every year with a special ceremony.
Watanabe 一家每年都會舉行特別儀式來祭拜他們的祖先。
Many Irish people have ancestors who left the country during the famine.
許多愛爾蘭人的祖先在大饑荒期間離開了這個國家。
- forebear
more formal; often used in literary contexts
- forefather
more poetic or old-fashioned; can refer specifically to male ancestors
- predecessor
broader term; does not require a family connection
- descendant
a person in a later generation of the same family line
用法筆記
Almost always used in the plural form 'ancestors'. Refers to relatives from generations further back than grandparents.
常見錯誤
2. A living thing or object from earlier times that today's species or objects deve
前身；始祖
動植物或物品演化上較早的形式
A living thing or object from earlier times that today's species or objects developed from.
The fossil suggests that birds had ancestors who lived alongside dinosaurs.
這塊化石顯示，鳥類的始祖曾與恐龍一起生活。
Modern horses are far larger than their ancient ancestors from millions of years ago.
現代馬比數百萬年前的古代始祖要大得多。
Noah learned that the ancestors of today's whales once walked on land.
Noah 得知現今鯨魚的始祖曾經在陸地上行走。
The museum displayed clay pots that were the ancestors of modern kitchen bowls.
博物館展示了那些作為現代廚房碗盆前身的黏土罐。
Chen explained that the wild ancestors of corn looked nothing like the crop we eat.
Chen 解釋說，玉米的野生始祖看起來和我們吃的作物完全不同。
- precursor
more formal; often used for ideas or objects
- forerunner
suggests leading the way toward what came next
- progenitor
technical term, used mainly in biology
- descendant
a species or form that developed from an earlier one
文法句型
ancestors of + noun
用法筆記
Used for plants, animals, and man-made objects in an evolutionary or developmental sense. Often followed by 'of' to name the descendant.