pedigree · adj — having a pedigree. It carries an Arena rating of 1499, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, pedigree ranks #5 of 17,153 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #789 of 17,135 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #943 of 17,137 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,478 of 17,153 for Most Ingenious Words.
pedigree is pronounced /ˈpɛd.ɪ.ɡɹi/.
Why “pedigree” is a great word
A recorded line of descent, especially of a purebred animal, or the quality of having such distinguished ancestry. From Anglo-Norman pé de grue, a variant of Old French pié de gru ("foot of a crane"), from Latin pes ("foot") + grus ("crane"), from the resemblance of the three-line genealogical chart to a crane's foot. Unlike "lineage," which traces an unbroken thread, or "genealogy," the scholarly study thereof, "pedigree" is the certified document itself: the coveted proof. It is the vellum certificate framed in a kennel office, the obsessive alignment of champion sires in a racing form, and the faint, inescapable crane's foot pressed into the familial mud—a map not of where you are going, but of the narrow, required path you took at birth.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman pé de grue, a variant of Old French pié de gru (“foot of a crane”), from Latin pes (“foot”) + grus (“crane”).
adj
- Having a pedigree.
- Purebred.
noun
- A chart, list, or record of ancestors, to show breeding, especially distinguished breeding.
- A person's ancestral history; ancestry, lineage.
- Good breeding or ancestry.
- The history or provenance of an idea, custom etc.e.g.“This connection between sexual and spiritual impurity had an immense pedigree.” — 2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin, published 2013, page 33:
- The ancestry of a domesticated animal, especially a dog or horse.
verb
- To determine the pedigree of (an animal).
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
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