Descendant vs Posterity - What's the difference?
descendant | posterity |
descending from a biological ancestor.
proceeding from a figurative ancestor or source.
(literally) One who is the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations.
(figuratively) A thing that derives directly from a given precursor or source.
(biology) A later evolutionary type.
(linguistics) A language that is descended from another.
(linguistics) A word or form in one language that is descended from a counterpart in an ancestor language.
* 1993 , Jens Elmegård Rasmussen, “The Slavic i''-verbs with an excursus on the Indo-European ''?''-verbs”, in Bela Brogyanyi and Reiner Lipp (editors), ''Comparative-Historical Linguistics , John Benjamins Publishing, ISBN 978-90-272-3598-5,
All the future generations, especially the descendants of a specific person.
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
, title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=1
As nouns the difference between descendant and posterity
is that descendant is one who is the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations while posterity is all the future generations, especially the descendants of a specific person.As an adjective descendant
is descending from a biological ancestor.descendant
English
Adjective
(-)Usage notes
The adjective may be spelled either with ant'' or ''ent'' as the final syllable (see descendent). The noun may be spelled only with ''ant .Alternative forms
* descendentAntonyms
* ascendant, ascendent, ascendingNoun
(en noun)- ''The patriarch survived many descendants : five children, a dozen grandchildren, even a great grandchild.
- ''This famous medieval manuscript has many descendants .
- ''Dogs evolved as descendants of early wolves.
- English and Scots are the descendants of Old English.
page 479:
- The direct descendant of this form is the Slavic aorist: Sb.-Cr. n?s?'', ''d?nos? .
Usage notes
The adjective may be spelled either with ant'' or ''ent'' as the final syllable (see descendent). The noun may be spelled only with ''ant .Synonyms
* * *Antonyms
* ascendant * ancestor * forebearDerived terms
* direct descendant * indirect descendantSee also
* offspring * offshoot * progeny ----posterity
English
Noun
(-)citation, passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.}}