Nonpedigree

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Describing an animal, usually a dog or horse, whose ancestry is not officially recorded in a breed registry
2. Referring to a creature of mixed or unregistered breeding that cannot be traced through a formal line of descent
3. Not having a documented lineage in a pedigree register, as with many mixed-breed or unregistered animals

Etymology: "Nonpedigree" is simply the prefix "non-," meaning "not," attached to "pedigree." It describes an animal or plant that does not have a recorded pedigree, that is, a documented line of ancestors. The prefix comes from Latin "non," meaning "not," and was used freely in English to form negated nouns and adjectives, so the word needs no special story beyond its two parts. "Pedigree" itself is the more interesting half. It is generally traced to Anglo-Norman "pe de grue," which means "foot of a crane," because the lines in a family tree were drawn with three branches that resemble a crane's foot. The idea is that the chart of ancestry looked like that bird's footprint.