Pēd'i-gree, n.

n. [Contracted from Fr. par degrés, by degrees; for a pedigree is properly a genealogical table which records the relationship of families by degrees.] Line of ancestors; descent; lineage; genealogy; strain; an account or register of a line of ancestors.

Alterations of surnames . . . have obscured the truth of our pedigrees. Camden.

His vanity labored to contrive us a pedigree, as he thought, more noble. Milton.

The Jews preserved the pedigrees of their several tribes. Atterbury.

Few of the statesmen of his time could show such a pedigree as his. Macaulay.

By some authorities this word is said to be derived from the French pied-de-grue (crane's foot), a name formerly applied to the heraldic genealogical trees from their form.