different between father vs predecessor

English

Etymology

From Middle English fader, from Old English fæder, from Proto-West Germanic *fader, from Proto-Germanic *fad?r, from Proto-Indo-European *ph?t?r. Doublet of ayr, faeder, padre, pater, and père.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: fä'th?(r), IPA^(key): /?f??ð?(?)/
• (General American) enPR: fä'th?r, IPA^(key): /?f?ð?/
• (General Australian) enPR: fä'th?, IPA^(key): /?fa?ð?/
• (obsolete) enPR: f?'th?r, IPA^(key): /?fæð??/
• Homophone: farther (in non-rhotic accents)
• Rhymes: -??ð?(r)
• Hyphenation: fa?ther

Noun

father (plural fathers)

1. A (generally human) male who begets a child.
2. A male ancestor more remote than a parent; a progenitor; especially, a first ancestor.
3. A term of respectful address for an elderly man.

4. A term of respectful address for a priest.
5. A person who plays the role of a father in some way.
6. The founder of a discipline or science.

7. Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind.
   • 1991, The Nairobi Law Monthly:

     Soon after the announcement of this year's election results, Mereka said that "the father of all battles had just begun." His dispute with Muite goes back to March last year […]

   • 2002, Financial Management:

     "If UK GDP slows by 1 per cent, there is the mother and father of all recessions. It was exciting, but very bizarre, working in such an environment."

   • 2012, Zubairu Wai, Epistemologies of African Conflicts: Violence, Evolutionism, and the War in Sierra Leone, Palgrave Macmillan: (?ISBN), page 93:

     “The Father of All Battles”

     On March 23, 1991, a band of armed insurgents attacked the town of Bomaru […]

8. Something inanimate that begets.

Synonyms

• (parent): see Thesaurus:father
• (most significant thing): see mother and granddaddy

Antonyms

• (with regards to gender) mother
• (with regards to ancestry) son, daughter, child

Hypernyms

• (a male parent): parent

Derived terms

Related terms

• Father
• Jupiter
• paternal

Translations

Verb

father (third-person singular simple present fathers, present participle fathering, simple past and past participle fathered)

1. To be a father to; to sire.
   • 1592, William Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI v 4

     Well, go to; we'll have no bastards live; Especially since Charles must father it.

2. (figuratively) To give rise to.
   • 1610, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline ii 2

     Cowards father cowards and base things sire base.

3. To act as a father; to support and nurture.
   • 1610, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline iv 2

     Ay, good youth! And rather father thee than master thee.

4. To provide with a father.
5. To adopt as one's own.
   • 1713, Jonathan Swift, Imitation of Horace, Book I. Ep. VII.

     Kept company with men of wit / Who often fathered what he writ.

Translations

See also

• beget
• grandpa
• pater
• paternal
• sire

Anagrams

• afther, fareth, hafter, trefah

Middle English

Noun

father

1. (Late Middle English) Alternative form of fader

English

Alternative forms

• prædecessor (archaic)
• prædecessour (obsolete, rare)
• predecessour (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin praedecessor.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?i?d?s?s?(?)/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /?p?i?d?s?s?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?p??d.?.s?s.?/, /?p?i.d?.s?s.?/

Noun

predecessor (plural predecessors)

1. One who precedes; one who has preceded another in any state, position, office, etc.; one whom another follows or comes after, in any office or position.
2. A model or type of machinery or device which precedes the current one. Usually used to describe an earlier, outdated model.

   The steam engine was the predecessor of diesel and electric locomotives.

3. (mathematics) A vertex having a directed path to another vertex

Synonyms

• forerunner
• foreganger (archaic, rare)

Antonyms

• (one who precedes): successor
• (machinery or device which precedes): successor

Translations

Anagrams

• corepressed, reprocessed

Catalan

Noun

predecessor m (plural predecessors, feminine predecessora)

1. predecessor

Further reading

• “predecessor” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “predecessor” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “predecessor” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “predecessor” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Portuguese

Noun

predecessor m (plural predecessores, feminine predecessora, feminine plural predecessoras)

1. predecessor (something or someone who precedes)

   Synonym: antecessor

Adjective

predecessor m (feminine singular predecessora, masculine plural predecessores, feminine plural predecessoras, comparable)

1. preceding (occurring before or in front of something else)

   Synonyms: antecessor, anterior