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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."
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Examples of forebear in a Sentence
Fidan Cheikosman, JSTOR Daily, 1 Jan. 2025
This entry was no different and was as complex as its lauded forebears.
—Ollie Barder, Forbes, 28 Dec. 2024
From horses to housewares Santos remembers riding horses up to his family home; for generations, this was a ranch belonging to his forebears.
—David Culver, CNN, 18 Jan. 2025
Yet, in a land whose ancient Greek forebears coined the notion of hubris as a potent ingredient of tragedy, both developments contributed to a crippling debt crisis that raised questions about Greek membership in the European Union and ballooned into a broader crisis across the eurozone.
—Alan Cowell, New York Times, 5 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Forebear.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forebear. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.
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