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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."
Examples of forebear in a Sentence
Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 3 Jan. 2026
Those philosophers are better considered the forebears of the more august tradition of criticizing stuff without doing it first.
—Literary Hub, 22 Dec. 2025
The members of Geese are young, lanky, and elegantly disaffected in a way that recalls both the Strokes and the Velvet Underground, two forebears of a certain strain of New York City cool.
—Amanda Petrusich, New Yorker, 12 Dec. 2025
Emily Cooper may have a standout wardrobe of her own, but Lily Collins is paying homage to her fashionable forebears.
—Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 10 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for forebear
Cite this Entry
“Forebear.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forebear. Accessed 8 Jan. 2026.
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