grandfather








noun

  1. the father of one’s father or mother.
  2. a forefather.
  3. the founder or originator of a family, species, type, etc.; the first of one’s or its kind, or the one being longest in existence: the grandfather of all steam locomotives.

verb (used with object)

  1. to exempt (something or someone) from new legislation, restrictions, or requirements: The law grandfathered all banks already operating at the time of passage. He was grandfathered into the pension plan.

noun

  1. the father of one’s father or mother
  2. (often plural) a male ancestor
  3. (often capital) a familiar term of address for an old man
  4. dialect a caterpillar or woodlouse
n.

early 15c., from grand (adj.) + father (n.), probably on analogy of French grand-père. Replaced grandsire and Old English ealdefæder. Grandfather clause originally (1900) referred to exemptions from post-Reconstruction voting restrictions in the U.S. South for men whose forebears had voted before the Civil War. Grandfather clock is c.1880, from the popular song; they were previously known as tall case clocks or eight-day clocks.

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