Wacky Wednesday – Mixed Up Words

My daughter has been complaining to me about people confusing the words ancestor and descendant. (Like her mother, she is a little in love with words.) Unlike the chicken and egg question, we can be absolutely sure that ancestors come before descendants in any timeline on our planet, just as ancestor would precede descendant in the dictionary. Think about the family tree they show in the front of an intergenerational novel: The first Devonhams (ancestors) are listed at the top and the most recent arrivals (descendants) are at the bottom of the page. The descendants are the result of DNA coming DOWN the line or DESCENDING from way back in history to the modern descendants.