forebear

Origin:

late 15th century: from fore + bear, variant of obsolete beer 'someone who exists' (from be + -er¹)

Do not confuse forbear with forebear. Forbear means 'stop yourself from doing something' (he doesn’t forbear to write about the bad times), while forebear (which is also sometimes spelled forbear) means 'an ancestor' (our Stone Age forebears).