parentage
(ˈpɛərəntɪdʒ)
[a. F. parentage (12th c. in Littré), f. parent parent + -age.]
1. Exercise of the functions of a parent; parental conduct or treatment. rare.
| c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon iv. 123 Our fader..sholde have slayne vs, if it hadde not be our lorde that kepte vs therfro..Sore harde parentage dyd he shewe to vs, our naturell fader. 1623 J. Wodroephe Marrow Fr. Tongue 478/2 Good Amitie is a second Parentage. 1867 Lewes Hist. Philos. (ed. 3) I. 269 Plato ordains community of wives, and interdicts parentage. |
† 2. Parents collectively. Obs. rare.
| 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 1851 This blessed Audry from her yonge aege Was..Obedyent lowly vnto her parentage. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. x. 27 He..Inquyrd, which of them most did love her parentage? |
3. Derivation or descent from parents, esp. in reference to the particular parent or parents; ‘birth’, lineage.
| 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Parentela..Parentage: auncestrie. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iv. ii. 152 The elder [child],..ignorant of his birth and parentage, Became a Bricklayer, when he came to age. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. Pref. 18 That doubly Honourable (both for his parts and parentage) Mr. Boyle. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. ix. 363 Settlements by parentage..all legitimate children being really settled in the parish where their parents are settled. 1870 Freeman Norm. Conq. (ed. 2) I. App. 714 The alleged parentage of her son Harold was generally doubted. |
b. fig. Derivation from an author or source, origin.
| 1581 Mulcaster Positions v. (1887) 35 This worde, γραµµατικη, with..γραϕικη, both the two of one parentage and petigree. 1641 Wilkins Math. Magick i. ii. (1648) 9 We shall find it to spring from honourable parentage. 1833 L. Ritchie Wand. by Loire 153 The superstition..is of very ancient and respectable parentage. 1882 Farrar Early Chr. II. 436 Sin..shows by ethical likeness its Satanic parentage. |
4. spec. Derivation or descent from parents in relation to inherited rank or character; hereditary degree or quality; ‘family’, ‘birth’. Usually with qualifying adj.; in quot. 1608 absol. good birth, high rank.
| 1490 Caxton Eneydos xi. 41 They whiche ben borne of basse parentage. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII 38 Cicile Duches of Yorke..a woman of small stature, but of muche honour and high parentage. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 649 Heyres of great parentage in the South part. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. iv. 39 He askt me of what parentage I was; I told him of as good as he. 1608 Dod & Cleaver Expos. Prov. xi–xii. 49 Poore women which neither haue parentage, nor beauty, nor riche apparel to set them forth. 1754 Sherlock Disc. (1759) I. iii. 95 They upbraided him with the Meanness of his Parentage. 1838 Lytton Alice i. xi, Born of humble parentage. |
† 5. Relationship, kinship; concr. relations collectively, kindred. Obs.
| 1548 Ld. Somerset Epist. Scots A iv b, By mariage..one bloude, one lignage and parentage, is made of twoo. 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1001/1 By equalitie and loue, which is by parentage and mariage. 1657 Earl of Monmouth tr. Paruta's Pol. Disc. 56 If Cato had not despised the Parentage offered him by Pompey. 1693 Tate in Dryden's Juvenal xv. Notes (1697) 382 The Souldier is also priviledg'd to make a Will, and to give away his Estate, which he got in War..without consideration of Parentage, or Relations. 1768 Boswell Corsica ii. (ed. 2) 93 Signor Luiggi Giafferi..who had a numerous parentage. |
6. The condition or status of a parent; parenthood. Also fig.
| 1876 Gladstone Homeric Synchr. 165 This supposes that Tyre, since it had reached the age of political parentage, must have come into possession of considerable power some time before. 1877 E. S. Phelps Story of Avis xv. 275 Romances, in which parentage is represented as a blindly deifying privilege, which it were an irreverence to associate with teething..or an insufficient income. 1887 Blackmore Springhaven III. 54 Another race..with doubts whether marriage could make parentage between them. |
7. = parage 4.
| 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Parage, This Parage being an equality of duty, or service among brothers and sisters, some have called it Fratriage and Parentage. |