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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
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
An exciting crop of younger players are impatient to usurp their forebears, the American men are looking to take the next step and if the ATP Next Gen Finals is anything to go by, an 18-year-old from Rio de Janeiro called Joao Fonseca is going to be a problem very soon.
—Charlie Eccleshare, The Athletic, 29 Dec. 2024
Foreign and domestic businesses and crypto capitalists will rewire the infrastructure of the world economy to make more money, just as their forebears did in the early days of the U.S. empire, when the state was underdeveloped.
—Henry Farrell, Foreign Affairs, 23 Dec. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near forebear
Cite this Entry
“Forebear.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forebear. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.
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