descendant vs predecessor

descendant

noun
  • A language that is descended from another. 

  • A word or form in one language that is descended from a counterpart in an ancestor language. 

  • A later evolutionary type. 

  • One of the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations. 

  • A thing that derives directly from a given precursor or source. 

adj
  • Proceeding from a figurative ancestor or source. 

  • Descending; going down 

  • Descending from a biological ancestor. 

predecessor

noun
  • A model or type of machinery or device which precedes the current (or later) one. Usually used to describe an earlier, outdated model. 

  • One who precedes; one who has preceded another in any state, position, office, etc.; one whom another follows or comes after, in any office or position. 

  • A vertex having a directed path to another vertex 

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