Unpedigreed

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Lacking a documented ancestry, especially of a purebred animal that is not registered with a breed association
2. Without a recorded family line, such as a dog or horse with no registered parentage or breeding history
3. Describing an animal or plant whose ancestry is unknown or unrecorded and so cannot be traced through official papers

Etymology: "Unpedigreed" is simply the prefix "un-", meaning "not" or "lacking", attached to "pedigreed," which describes an animal or plant whose recorded line of descent is documented. The base word is itself a compound of its own, so the negative adds a second layer: something lacking that documented lineage. The surprising part lies in "pedigree" itself, which has nothing to do with feet or birds at first glance. It comes from the Anglo-Norman "pe de grue," meaning "foot of a crane," because the marks used to chart a family tree in old records looked like the three-pronged foot of that bird. A line branching upward from a single stem resembled the bird's splayed toes. Because "pedigree" was originally applied to noble family lines, and later to purebred animals, "unpedigreed" tends to describe a dog, horse or plant without documented ancestry, and sometimes a person whose background is unknown. The word is transparent to any English speaker, which is why it rarely needs explanation.

Synonyms: mongrel, mixed-breed, nonpedigree

Antonyms: purebred, pedigreed, thoroughbred