Ancestor — A Vocabulary Story
The Moustache in the Photograph
Luis was helping his mum sort old family photographs for Abuela's eightieth birthday when he spotted something alarming.
"Mum," he said slowly, "why is there a photo of me wearing a giant moustache?"
His mum peered at the faded picture of a man balancing on an ancient bicycle, moustache curling up like two question marks. "That's not you, silly. That's your ancestor, Rafael. He lived over a hundred years ago in Valencia."
Ancestor means a person from long ago in your family that you are descended from. It can also mean an early animal, plant, or thing that later ones developed from.
Luis stared. Same round nose. Same sticky-out ears. Same look of someone about to do something daft. It was like gazing into a very hairy mirror.
"He was famous in his village," Mum said, "for cycling backwards down the hill to the market, waving his hat."
"Backwards?" Luis whispered, deeply impressed. Clearly, this was the greatest ancestor anyone had ever had.
All afternoon, Luis practised in the garden. Cycling backwards turned out to be impossible, so he settled for pedalling very slowly while waving his hat, which still felt magnificent.
At the party, Abuela unwrapped the framed photograph and pressed a hand to her heart. "Rafael! My grandfather!"
Then she looked at Luis, who had drawn a curly moustache on his face with Mum's eyebrow pencil, and her eyes went wide.
"It's him," she gasped. "He's come back!"
Luis twirled one inky curl and bowed. If you were lucky enough to match your ancestor's face, he decided, the least you could do was borrow the moustache too.
Word Definition
ancestor
meaning
a person from whom one is descended, especially someone earlier than a grandparent; an early animal or plant from which later ones have evolved; an early form of something that later developed
synonyms
forebear · forefather · predecessor · progenitor · forerunner
antonyms
descendant
example sentence
My ancestor arrived in Britain over two hundred years ago.