Parentages

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Relation by birth or descent to a specific set of ancestors or descendants
2. the lineage or family background from which someone originates
3. collective terms describing the existence of dual or multiple familial connections through birth or adoption

Etymology: "Parentages" is the plural of "parentage", which came into English from Middle French, where it was "parentage" in Old French, a formation built on "parent". The base word "parent" comes from Latin "parens", meaning one who begets or gives birth, and the "-age" ending, borrowed from French, turns it into a noun for the condition or collection of such relations: lineage, descent, and the family background a person is born into. The plural form is the less common one. Its inflection simply counts separate lines of descent, so the word refers to the different ancestral families behind a person or animal, as in "the mixed parentages of the breed." Here the word is used in a sense of ancestry as a set of distinct family lines rather than a single line.