pedigree [LME] In medieval manuscripts a mark consisting of three curved lines was used to indicate a person’s family descent or succession. People saw a resemblance between this mark and the claw or track of a crane, and called it ‘a crane’s foot’—pé de grue in the French spoken by the descendants of Norman settlers in England. The name, which became pedigree, then came to refer to a family tree, and from that to a person’s or, from the early 17th century, animal’s lineage or descent.