ancestor vs boilerplate

ancestor

noun
  • A word or phrase which serves as the origin of a term in another language. 

  • One who had the same role or function in former times. 

  • One from whom an estate has descended;—the correlative of heir. 

  • One from whom a person is descended, whether on the father's or mother's side, at any distance of time; a progenitor; a forefather. 

  • An earlier type; a progenitor 

verb
  • To be an ancestor of. 

boilerplate

noun
  • Formulaic or hackneyed language. 

  • A sheet of copper or steel used in the construction of a boiler. 

  • Syndicated material. 

  • The rating plate or nameplate required to be affixed to a boiler by the Boiler Explosions Act (1882). 

  • Standard text or program code used routinely and added with a text editor or word processor; text of a legal or official nature added to documents or labels. 

  • Hard, icy snow which may be dangerous to ski on. 

  • A plate attached to industrial machinery, identifying information such as manufacturer, model number, serial number, and power requirements. 

adj
  • Describing text or other material of a standard or routine nature. 

  • Used to refer to a non-functional spacecraft used to test configuration and procedures. 

verb
  • To store (standard text) so that it can easily be retrieved for reuse. 

How often have the words ancestor and boilerplate occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )