Is there a single word which means "a person, and all of his ancestors", or "a person, and all of his descendants"?
There are a lot of words describing ancestral relationships between people, such as:
parent
grandparent
great-grandparent
any of the above can be described as an "ancestor".
child
grandchild
great-grandchild
any of the above can be described as a "descendant".
I am wondering if there are single words (nouns) which describe any of the following concepts:
A person and all of his/her ancestors
A person or any of his/her ancestors
A person and all of his/her descendants
A person or any of his/her descendants
Any ideas?
Solution 1:
Lineage comes to mind (as did Line but I prefer lineage)
- lineal descent from an ancestor; ancestry or extraction: She could trace her lineage to the early Pilgrims.
- the line of descendants of a particular ancestor; family; race.
Since there is some discussion about whether or not the person itself belongs to the lineage, I offer this ngram of "last of his lineage"
Solution 2:
For all of his descendants, progeny (google's def):
a descendant or the descendants of a person, animal, or plant; offspring.
For all of his anscestors, you can use forebears:
an ancestor
OR forefathers / foremothers
OR primogenitors:
an ancestor, esp. the earliest ancestor of a people; a progenitor.
Solution 3:
For most purposes in general English writing, where readability is more important than terminology, the familiar, well understood word line should eminently serve the purpose, with its meaning amply clear from the context.
line1
19
a. Ancestry or lineage.
b. A series of persons, especially from one family, who succeed each other: a line of monarchs; comes from a long line of bankers.