different between predecessor vs founder

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 Usually used to describe an earlier, outdated model.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

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?fa?nd?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?fa?nd?/
• Rhymes: -a?nd?(?)
• Hyphenation: found?er

Etymology 1

From Old French fondeur, from Latin fund?tor.

Noun

founder (plural founders, feminine foundress)

1. One who founds or establishes (especially said of a company, project, organisation, state)

2. (genetics) Someone for whose parents one has no data.

Antonyms

• (one who founds): ruiner

Derived terms

• cofounder

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle French fondeur, from Latin fundo (“pour, melt, cast”)

Noun

founder (plural founders)

1. The iron worker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.
   • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 161.

     The term 'founder' was applied in the British iron industry long afterwards to the ironworker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.

2. One who casts metals in various forms; a caster.

   a founder of cannon, bells, hardware, or printing types

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle French fondrer (“send to the bottom”), from Latin fundus (“bottom”)

Noun

founder (plural founders)

1. (veterinary medicine) A severe laminitis of a horse, caused by untreated internal inflammation in the hooves.

Translations

Verb

founder (third-person singular simple present founders, present participle foundering, simple past and past participle foundered)

1. (intransitive) Of a ship, to fill with water and sink.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship but we saw her sink, and then I understood for the first time what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea.
2. (intransitive) To fall; to stumble and go lame, as a horse.
3. (intransitive) To fail; to miscarry.
4. (transitive, archaic, nautical) To cause to fill and sink, as a ship.
   • 1697, William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World, Volume I, page 82

     We found a strong Tide setting out of the Streights to the Northward, and like to founder our Ship.

   • 1744, William Smith, A New Voyage to Guinea, page 167, quoted in The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds Of The Slave Trade, Robert Harms, 2008

     "I was amazed when we came among the breakers (which to me seemed large enough to founder our ship), to see with what wondrous dexterity they carried us through them, and ran their canoes on the top of one of those rolling waves […] "

   • 1932, Hart Crane, "From haunts of Proserpine" (Review of Green River: A Poem for Rafinesque, James Whaler

     But still more disastrous was the storm which foundered his ship in Long Island Sound, swallowing within call of shore his fifty boxes of scientific equipment, his books, manuscripts and funds, the results of years of devoted labor.

5. (transitive) To disable or lame (a horse) by causing internal inflammation and soreness in the feet or limbs.

Translations

Usage notes

Frequently confused with flounder. Both may be applied to the same situation, the difference is the severity of the action: floundering (struggling to maintain position) comes first, followed by foundering (losing it by falling, sinking or failing).

Anagrams

• Neudorf, fonduer, refound

Old French

Etymology

From Latin fund?.

Verb

founder

1. (late Anglo-Norman) Alternative spelling of funder

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. The forms that would normally end in *-d, *-ds, *-dt are modified to t, z, t. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.