Adjacent Words

Pedigree definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PED'IGREE, n. [probably from L. pes,pedis, foot.]
1. Lineage; line of ancestors from which a person or tribe descends; genealogy.
Alterations of surnames--have obscured the truth of our pedigrees.
2. An account or register of a line of ancestors.
The Jews preserved the pedigrees of their several tribes.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: having a list of ancestors as proof of being a purebred animal [syn: pedigree, pedigreed, pureblood, pureblooded, thoroughbred] n
1: the descendants of one individual; "his entire lineage has been warriors" [syn: lineage, line, line of descent, descent, bloodline, blood line, blood, pedigree, ancestry, origin, parentage, stemma, stock]
2: line of descent of a purebred animal
3: ancestry of a purebred animal [syn: pedigree, bloodline]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English pedegru, from Anglo-French pé de grue, literally, crane's foot; from the shape made by the lines of a genealogical chart Date: 15th century 1. a register recording a line of ancestors 2. a. an ancestral line ; lineage b. the origin and the history of something; broadly background, history 3. a. a distinguished ancestry b. the recorded purity of breed of an individual or strain • pedigreed or pedigree adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 (often attrib.) a recorded line of descent of a person or esp. a pure-bred domestic or pet animal. 2 the derivation of a word. 3 a genealogical table. 4 colloq. the 'life history' of a person, thing, idea, etc. Derivatives: pedigreed adj. Etymology: ME pedegru etc. f. AF f. OF pie de grue (unrecorded) crane's foot, a mark denoting succession in pedigrees

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pedigree Ped"i*gree, n. [Of unknown origin; possibly fr. F. par degr['e]s by degrees, -- for a pedigree is properly a genealogical table which records the relationship of families by degrees; or, perh., fr. F. pied de grue crane's foot, from the shape of the heraldic genealogical trees.] 1. A line of ancestors; descent; lineage; genealogy; a register or record of a line of ancestors. Alterations of surnames . . . have obscured the truth of our pedigrees. --Camden. His vanity labored to contrive us a pedigree. --Milton. I am no herald to inquire of men's pedigrees. --Sir P. Sidney. The Jews preserved the pedigrees of their tribes. --Atterbury. 2. (Stock Breeding) A record of the lineage or strain of an animal, as of a horse.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(pedigrees) 1. If a dog, cat, or other animal has a pedigree, its ancestors are known and recorded. An animal is considered to have a good pedigree when all its known ancestors are of the same type. 60 per cent of dogs and ten per cent of cats have pedigrees. N-COUNT 2. A pedigree animal is descended from animals which have all been of a particular type, and is therefore considered to be of good quality. ...a pedigree dog. ADJ: usu ADJ n 3. Someone's pedigree is their background or their ancestors. Hammer's business pedigree almost guaranteed him the acquaintance of U.S. presidents... N-COUNT: oft poss N

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ped'-i-gre (hithyalledh, "to show one's birth"): The English word "pedigree" occurs only once in the Bible, according to the concordance. In Nu 1:18, it is said: "They declared their pedigrees"; that is, they enrolled or registered themselves according to their family connections. The same idea is expressed frequently, employing a different term in the Hebrew, by the common phrase of Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, "to reckon by genealogy," "to give genealogy," etc. (compare 1Ch 7:5,9; Ezr 2:62 ff; Ne 7:64). These last passages indicate the importance of the registered pedigree or genealogy, especially of the priests in the post-exilic community, for the absence of the list of their pedigrees, or their genealogical records, was sufficient to cause the exclusion from the priesthood of certain enrolled priests.

Walter R. Betteridge

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Lineage, descent, ancestry, genealogy, stock, breed, family, race, house, line of ancestors, strain, line, extraction.

Moby Thesaurus

Almanach de Gotha, Red Book, Royal Kalendar, Social Register, Stammbaum, ancestry, birth, blood, bloodline, blue book, derivation, descent, directory, extraction, family, family tree, full-blooded, genealogical tree, genealogy, heritage, line, line of descent, lineage, origin, parentage, pedigreed, roots, stemma, stock, strain, studbook, thoroughbred, tree