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Forebear (also spelled, less commonly, as forbear) was first used by our ancestors in the days of Middle English. Fore- means "coming before," just as in forefather, and -bear means "one that is." This -bear is not to be confused with the -bear in the unrelated verb forbear, which comes from Old English beran, meaning "to bear or carry." The -bear in the noun forebear is a combination of be-, from the verb be (or, more specifically, from been, an old dialect variant of be), and -ar, a form of the suffix -er, which we append to verbs to denote one that performs a specified action. In this case the "action" is simply existing or being—in other words, -bear implies one who is a "be-er."
Synonyms
Examples of forebear in a Sentence
Guy Lodge, Variety, 18 Oct. 2024
Steve Bowen and the Ocean Race crew, circumnavigating the globe in their different ways, have a wide choice of forebears.
—Cullen Murphy, The Atlantic, 11 Oct. 2024
Still others considered themselves Sons of Liberty, in the vein of their Revolutionary forebears.
—Longreads, 3 Oct. 2024
Like our Victorian forebears, we are not consulted about the enterprises in which our information enlists us.
—Ben Tarnoff, The New Yorker, 5 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for forebear 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'forebear.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near forebear
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“Forebear.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forebear. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
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