progenitor

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5++朗文当代英语 5++LDOCE 5++朗文 5++pro·gen·i·tor /prəʊˈdʒenɪtə $ proʊˈdʒenɪtər/ noun [countable] 1 formalCOME FROM/ORIGINATE someone who first thought of an idea 创始人，始祖progenitor of a progenitor of cubism 立体派的创始人2. HB technicalFAMILY a person or animal that lived in the past, to whom someone or something living now is related 〔人或动物的〕祖先 SYN ancestor

Examples from the Corpus

progenitor• But he carved his place in Sooner lore and will go down as the progenitor of the Oklahoma program's rebirth.• Binet is considered the progenitor of intelligence testing.• Thatcher was merely the midwife for Essex man: the progenitor was Tony Benn.• They are derivative of the culture, not the progenitors of it.• Actually, scientists say that cloned animals will not be exact replicas of their progenitors.• Despite the changing modes of life, they are attentive to the paradoxical utterances of their progenitor.• They became yet more complex, true progenitors of real plants and animals.• Pure Przewalski's horses, genetically the closest to the wild progenitors of domestic breeds, are all in zoos.progenitor of• Graham was a great progenitor of modern dance.Origin progenitor (1300-1400) Latin progignere “to produce young”