Other forms: pedigrees
A pedigree is the recorded ancestry of an animal — the documented line of parents and grandparents that proves a dog or a horse is purebred. A pedigree dog has papers; a mongrel does not.
It is used of people too, and there it means distinguished descent or, more often now, a record of achievement: a manager with a good pedigree, a car with racing pedigree. That second use has become the commoner one in journalism. As an adjective, pedigree means purebred: a pedigree spaniel. Compare lineage, which is the general word for descent, and provenance, which is the same idea applied to objects.
1nounpedigreeThe recorded ancestry of a purebred animal.
“The breeder produced a pedigree going back six generations.”
2nounbackgroundA record of background or achievement.
“She came to the job with an impressive pedigree.”
3adjectivedocumentedPurebred, with documented ancestry.
“They keep pedigree cattle.”
pedigree is a record of ancestry.
Anglo-Norman pé de grue meant crane's foot, and it is a description of the mark used on old genealogical charts: the three-line fork that shows one ancestor branching into descendants looks like a bird's footprint. The word is a picture of a diagram.
Proto-Indo-European
*ped-
Anglo-Norman
pé de grue
English, today
pedigree
Built from
From Anglo-Norman pé de grue, a variant of Old French pié de gru (“foot of a crane”), from Latin pes (“foot”) + grus (“crane”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Pets & Pet Care, Horses & Riding