ancestor

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European*h₂ent-
2. Proto-Indo-European*h₂énts
3. Proto-Indo-European*h₂énti
4. Proto-Italic*anti
5. Latinante
6. Latinante-
7. Latincedo
8. Latinantecessor
9. Anglo-Normanauncestre
10. Middle Englishauncestre
11. English todayancestor

From Middle English ancestre, auncestre, ancessour; the first forms from Old French ancestre (modern French ancêtre), from the Latin nominative antecessor (“one who goes before”); the last form from Old French ancessor, from Latin antecessōrem, accusative of antecessor, from antecēdō (“to go before”) + -tor (“-er”), from ante- (“before”) + cēdō (“to go”). See cede, and compare with antecessor.