pedigree, n.
(ˈpɛdɪgriː)
Forms: see below.
[In 15th c. pedegru, pee-de-grew, etc., app. AF. forms = F. pié (pied) de grue crane's foot; so called ‘from a three-line mark (like the broad arrow) used in denoting succession in pedigrees’ (Prof. Skeat), ‘a conventional mark consisting of three curved lines, which bears a distinct resemblance to the claws of a bird’ (C. Sweet in Athenæum 30 Mar. (1895) 409, where information is given as to the appearance of old MSS. genealogies in pedigree form).]
A. Illustration of Forms.
(α) 5 pedicru; pedegru, -greu, -grewe, -grw; pedygru; pee de grew(e, 6 pede-, pedagrew; pedigrue, 6–7 -grewe.
| α 1410 in Madox Formul. Anglic. xxviii. (1702) 15 Omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos præsens Pedicru pervenerit. 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy Epil. (1550), Who so lyst loke and doe vnfolde The pee de Grewe of these cronicles olde. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 390/1 Pedegru, or petygru, lyne of kynrede, & awncetrye. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Mark i. 14 Genealogies and pedegrewes. 1607 Sir J. H. in Harington Nugæ Ant. (ed. Park 1804) II. 224 The true memories and pedigrews of their auncestors. |
(β) 5 pe de gre, pedigre (?) peedeugre; 5–6 peedegre; pedegre, 6–7 -degree; 6– pedigree.
| β 1426 Lydg. in Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 131 A remembraunce of a peedeugre how that..Henry the sext, is truly borne heir unto the corone of Fraunce. Ibid. 135 The peedegre doth hit specifie, The figure lo of the genelagye. 1433 ― S. Edmund iii. 299 Doun fro the stok off kynges descendyng The pe de gre by lyneal conueyyng. 1523 Fitzherb. Surv. Prol., If the owner make a true peedegre or conueyaunce by discente or by purchace vnto the said landes. 1547 J. Harrison Exhort. Scottes B vij b, Some fetchyng their pedegre from the Goddes, and some from the deuils. 1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 144 Seeing Pedegrees change..together with mens fortunes. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, ii. iv. 90 Willing you ouer-looke this Pedigree. 1815 Scott Guy M. ii, Godfrey Bertram..succceeded to a long pedigree and a short rent-roll. |
(γ) 5 petiegrew; petygru, -grwe; pytagru, -grwe; 5–6 petegreu, petigree; 6 pete-, peti-, petie-, pety-, pette-, petti-, petty-, -greu, -gru(e, -grew(e, -gre(e, -grye; (peti degree, petit(e degree); 6–7 pete-, peti-, pettigre(e.
| γ 14.. in Chron. R. Glouc. (1724) 585 A Petegreu, fro William Conquerour..vn to kyng Henry the vi. c 1440 [see α]. c 1486 Surtees Misc. (1888) 47 As he can and woll more largely show unto you by petiegrew. 1499 Promp. Parv. 402/1 (Pynson), Pytagrwe or lyne or kinrede. 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 124, I entende to make playne descrypcyon..Also of her petygre the noble excellence. 1529 Rastell Pastyme, Hist. Flem. (1811) 60 As the lyne and petegre aboue shewyth. 1530 Palsgr. 253 Petygrewe, genealogie. 1565 in Hakluyt's Voy. (1904) VI. 340 They instruct in al the petigrues of princes. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. II. 33/2 To fetch their petit degrees from their ancestors. 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1370/2 Twelue petidegrees of the descent of the crowne of England,..by the bishop of Rosse. 1652 H. L'Estrange Amer. no Jewes 58 So shall wee all at last be of one Petigre. |
B. Signification.
1. A genealogical stemma or table; a genealogy drawn up or exhibited in some tabular form.
| 1410 in Madox Formul. Anglic. xxviii. (1702) 15 Nos..sigilla nostra..huic præsenti Pedicru apposuimus. 1425 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 267/1 My Lordes Counseill Marchall..had yeven in to yat high place of Record a Pedegrewe. Ibid. 268/2 Yeving in a Peedegree in writyng. 1465 Paston Lett. II. 210 Be the pedegre mad in the seyd last Dewkis fadirs daijs. c 1660 Wood Life an. 1634 (O.H.S.) I. 45 To appeare before the said officers or heralds with his armes and pedegree. 1711 Mrs. Long in Swift's Wks. (1841) II. 477, I wish too at your leisure you would make a pedigree for me. 1870 Freeman Norm. Conq. (ed. 2) I. App. 703 The family of which he had just given the pedigree. |
2. a. One's line of ancestors; an ancestral line; ancestry; lineage, descent.
| c 1440 Lydg. Hors, Shepe & G. 9 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 15 Be dissent conveyed the pedegrewe Frome the patryarke Abrahame. 1465 Paston Lett. II. 210 As for the pedegre of the seyd Dewk, he is sone to William Pool, Dewk of Suffolk. 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke Prol. 15 The nativitie and petigrewe of Christe. 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Heb. 10 Melchisedech..had neither father, nor mother, nor pedigrew. 1591 Harington Orl. Fur. xxvi. lxix, As one that thence deriv'd his pedegrew. a 1683 Sidney Disc. Govt. ii. §24 Who had no better cover for his sordid extraction than a Welch Pedegree. 1700 Dryden Ajax & Ulysses 231 From Jove like him I claim my pedigree, And am descended in the same degree. 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. V. xxiii. 331 Men had forgotten a pedigree which had to be traced through a long line of foreign princes in Flanders. |
b. Of animals.
| 1608 Topsell Serpents 79 The true younger bees..derive their originall and petigree from the kingly stocke. 1818 [see pedigreed]. 1829 Lytton Devereux ii. i, To vouch for the pedigree..of the three horses he intends to dispose of. 1868 Darwin Anim. & Pl. I. ii. 51 The pedigree of a race⁓horse is of more value in judging of its probable success than its appearance. 1880 Haughton Phys. Geog. vi. 282 The modern Horse, whose pedigree [i.e. from the Eocene Hipparion] has been..traced by Professor Marsh. |
c. transf. Origin and succession, line of succession; derivation, etymological descent.
| 1566 Barthelet (title) The Pedigrewe of Heretiques, wherein is truly and plainly set out the first roote of Heretiques begon in the Church. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis To Rdr. (Arb.) 14 Attempt too fetche thee petit degree of woordes, I know not from what auncetoure. 1628 Prynne Loue-lockes 3 That which had its birth, source, and pedegree from the very Deuill himselfe, must needes bee odious. 1715 M. Davies Athen. Brit. I. 1 [Of the word ‘Pamphlet’] Its Pedigree can scarce be trac'd higher than the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's Reign. 1833 Chalmers Const. of Man II. ix, The origin and pedigree of our moral judgments. 1839 H. Rogers Ess. II. iii. 127 Both words..may very probably have had the same pedigree— perhaps the same parentage. |
d. colloq. The ‘life history’ of a person or thing. Also, a person's criminal record. pedigree-man (see quot. 1923).
| 1903 Dialect Notes II. 324 Pedigree,..history. ‘If he doesn't go straight I'll tell his pedigree.’ Not applying to family descent, but to personal history. a 1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) II. xvii. 397 ‘I run her in myself.’ ‘Oh, she's got a record... Why the hell didn't you say so?’ ‘I thought you remembered. You took her pedigree.’ 1923 J. Manchon Le Slang 220 Pedigree-man,..un récidiviste, un cheval de retour. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §477/5 Pedigree, a prisoner's police record. 1964 ‘D. Shannon’ Root of All Evil (1966) ix. 123 Dorothy had a little pedigree for shoplifting. 1969 C. Irving Fake! (1970) xii. 147 Another element in the ‘pedigree’ of the painting was a certificate from a prior owner, usually one of several well-known collectors. 1975 Times 22 Aug. 3/3 It has been decided to establish a national register to check the pedigrees of vehicles, particularly their milages. |
3. (Without article.) Descent in the abstract; esp. distinguished or ancient descent; ‘birth’.
| c 1460 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (ed. 2) 292 Sewte and servise we owe..To þi hiȝnesse..As royall most by pedigre. 1579 Lyly Euphues, Let. to Alcius Wks. 1902 I. 317 If thou clayme gentry by petegree, practise gentlenesse by thine honestie. 1676 Hobbes Iliad xx. 235 Though Vertue lieth not in Pedigree. 1701 De Foe True-born Eng. 351 Yet she boldly boasts of Pedigree. 1826 Scott Mal. Malagr. i, I am by pedigree a discontented person. 1896 Sir W. Lawson in Westm. Gaz. 4 Sept. 8/2 He did not want them to despise pedigree, because pedigree was the pedestal of the British Constitution. |
4. A race or line; a family; a line of succession; loosely, a long series, list, or ‘string’ of people.
| 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 617/1 [To] iest and rayle vpon the whole pedegre of Popes. 1596 H. Clapham Briefe Bible i. 26 Sheths Petygre marrieth with them. 1604–13 R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Pettigree, stocke, or off-spring. 1837 Sir F. Palgrave Merch. & Friar (1844) 81 They are all alike, ‘the whole pedigree on 'em—Radical or Conservative, Whig or Tory’. |
5. attrib. and Comb. Of, pertaining to, or having a pedigree or recorded line of descent, as pedigree cattle, pedigree cereal, pedigree stock, pedigree wheat; pedigree-hunting, pedigree-implying, pedigree-making, pedigree-monger, pedigree-sheet. pedigree-stick, a stick carved to record the genealogy or history of a tribe.
| 1863 Gard. Chron. 23 May, I was induced last autumn to sow a considerable breadth of land with Pedigree Wheat. 1871 Freeman Hist. Ess. 34 Just as pedigree-mongers nowadays invent pedigrees. 1893 Jrnl. Anthrop. Inst. XXII. 319 Had the Polynesians any means of recording degrees of descent?.. Aufau fetii is ‘the genealogy of a family’, and must have been a staff bound in some especial manner to serve the purpose of a pedigree-stick. Ibid. 320 An undoubted pedigree-stick..is figured..in Roth's translation of Crozet's ‘Voyage to Tasmania’, where it is described as ‘a staff recording the history of the Ngati-Rangi Tribe’ of New Zealand. 1895 A. C. Haddon Evol. Art ii. iv. 273 These carved shafts of sacred paddles and adzes were pedigree-sticks. 1897 Geneal. Mag. Oct. 339 Pedigree-making is to genealogy what classification is to geology, botany or zoology. 1901 Daily News 22 Jan. 5/2 He may go pedigree-hunting for himself, or he may employ a pedigree-hunter. 1901 Scotsman 28 Feb. 6/2 The Perth sale of pedigree shorthorn cattle. 1908 Encycl. Relig. & Ethics I. 826/2 Colley March first suggested that the carved shafts of the sacred paddles and adzes were pedigree-sticks, the patterns being ‘the multitudinous human links between the divine ancestor and the chief of the living tribe’. |