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pedigree

[ped-i-gree]
See more synonyms for pedigree on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. an ancestral line; line of descent; lineage; ancestry.
  2. a genealogical table, chart, list, or record, especially of a purebred animal.
  3. distinguished, excellent, or pure ancestry.
  4. derivation, origin, or history: the pedigree of a word.
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Origin of pedigree

1375–1425; late Middle English pedegru < Anglo-French, equivalent to Middle French pie de grue literally, foot of crane, a fanciful way of describing the appearance of the lines of a genealogical chart
Related formsped·i·gree·less, adjective

Synonyms

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2. Pedigree, genealogy refer to an account of ancestry. A pedigree is a table or chart recording a line of ancestors, either of persons or (more especially) of animals, as horses, cattle, and dogs; in the case of animals, such a table is used as proof of superior qualities: a detailed pedigree. A genealogy is an account of the descent of a person or family traced through a series of generations, usually from the first known ancestor: a genealogy that includes a king.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

lineagethoroughbredoriginclanfamilyracedescentgenealogybreedextractionheredityderivationbloodlinestockfull-bloodedpedigreedstirps

Examples from the Web for pedigree

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • I remember such a one in Picardy, with a name as long as a Gascon's pedigree.

    The White Company

    Arthur Conan Doyle

  • Otherwise why the pedigree, why the rigid castes, the isolation of women?

  • They boast of their master's pedigree and descent, as if they were related to him.

    Clarissa, Volume 3 (of 9)

    Samuel Richardson

  • On his father's side a pedigree of three generations can be traced.

    Concerning Cats

    Helen M. Winslow

  • He had too profound a respect for his own pedigree to lay his sins at his great-grandfather's door.

    Audrey Craven

    May Sinclair

British Dictionary definitions for pedigree

pedigree

noun
    1. the line of descent of a purebred animal
    2. (as modifier)a pedigree bull
  2. a document recording this
  3. a genealogical table, esp one indicating pure ancestry
  4. derivation or backgroundthe pedigree of an idea
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Derived Formspedigreed, adjective

Word Origin

C15: from Old French pie de grue crane's foot, alluding to the spreading lines used in a genealogical chart
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for pedigree

n.

early 15c., "genealogical table or chart," from Anglo-French pe de gru, a variant of Old French pied de gru "foot of a crane," from Latin pedem accusative of pes "foot" (see foot (n.)) + gruem (nominative grus) "crane," cognate with Greek geranos, Old English cran; see crane (n.)).

On old manuscripts, "descent" was indicated by a forked sign resembling the branching lines of a genealogical chart; the sign also happened to look like a bird's footprint. Form influenced in Middle English by association with degree. Meaning "ancestral line" is mid-15c.; of animals, c.1600. Related: Pedigreed.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
pedigree in Medicine

pedigree

(pĕd′ĭ-grē′)
n.
  1. An ancestral line of descent, especially as diagrammed on a chart, to show ancestral history and to analyze Mendelian inheritance of certain traits including familial diseases.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.