Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Pedigree

Pedigree (ped"i*grē) , noun

[Of unknown origin; possibly from French par degrés by degrees, -- for a pedigree is properly a genealogical table which records the relationship of families by degrees; or, perh., from French 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.