an ancestral line; line of descent; lineage; ancestry.
2.
a genealogical table, chart, list, or record, esp. of a purebred animal.
3.
distinguished, excellent, or pure ancestry.
4.
derivation, origin, or history: the pedigree of a word.
[Origin: 1375–1425; late ME pedegru < AF, equiv. to MF pie de grue lit., foot of crane, a fanciful way of describing the appearance of the lines of a genealogical chart]
—Related forms
ped·i·gree·less, adjective
—Synonyms 2.Pedigree,genealogy refer to an account of ancestry. A pedigree is a table or chart recording a line of ancestors, either of persons or (more especially) of animals, as horses, cattle, and dogs; in the case of animals, such a table is used as proof of superior qualities: a detailed pedigree. A genealogy is an account of the descent of a person or family traced through a series of generations, usually from the first known ancestor: a genealogy that includes a king.
A chart of an individual's ancestors used in human genetics to analyze Mendelian inheritance of certain traits, especially of familial diseases.
A list of the ancestors of a purebred animal.
[Middle English pedegru, from Anglo-Norman pe de grue : pe, foot (from Latin pēs; see pedi-) + de, of (from Latin dē; see de-) + grue, crane (from the resemblance of a crane's foot to the lines of succession on a genealogical chart) (from Vulgar Latin *grūā, from Latin grūs, gru-; see gerə-2 in Indo-European roots).]
c.1410, "genealogical table or chart," from Anglo-Fr. pe de gru, a variant of O.Fr. pied de gru "foot of a crane," from L. pedem "foot" + gruem (nom. grus) "crane," cognate with Gk. geranos, O.E. cran, see crane). On old manuscripts, "descent" was indicated by a forked sign resembling the branching lines of a genealogical chart; the sign also happened to look like a bird's footprint. Form infl. in M.E. by association with degree. Meaning "ancestral line" is c.1440; of animals, 1608.
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.