清单上的名词意思非常接近，每一个严格来说都是指一个人的祖先。ancestor,forebear,和forefather几乎都不用于父母和祖父母，但是，progenitor有时候用于他们或是更久远的祖先。【although napoleon and his immediate progenitors are corsicans,he is considered by most modern frenchmen to have been as french as their own ancestors.】
ancestor 和 progenitor经常被用于除人以外的事物。【eohippus was an ancestor of the horse; the progenitors of italian lyric verse forms were those used by the troubadours of provence.】在这个意思里，progenitor指的是创造，造成或导致一种新事物发展的早期形式；ancesstor,即使在扩展意义中，也保留着历史发展的概念，它的过程是由人们无法控制并知之甚少的力量决定的。【the impressionist movement was one of the ancestors of abstract art;johnson's dictionary was the progenitor of many others that followed its style and treatment of language.】
forefather和forebear常被用于复数形式。在诗歌里forefather是被用得最多的，它指强烈的家庭和种族感情，或持续地定居在一个地方，而forebears这一含义的程度要小得多。
反义词：descendant, offspring,progeny
翻译自《choose the right word》
