A Vocabulary Malfunction

[poliphilo]

It happens all the time- people saying "ancestor" when they mean "descendant" and "descendant" when they mean "ancestor". And no-one ever picks them up on it.

If things carry on like this the two words are going to become interchangeable synonyms for "person in (my) family tree" and that would be a pity.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Descendants don't have to be close. It's allowable to speak of people thousands of years in the future as "our descendants".

[matrixmann]

Hm, so maybe it's just my definition of usage.
As a foreigner you have to take a little more care of what pick you use, so there is no misunderstanding.