different between ancestry vs breeding

English

Alternative forms

• ancestrie (obsolete)
• auncestrie (obsolete)
• auncestry (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English auncestrie, from Old French ancesserie. See ancestor.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?æn.s?s.t?i/

Noun

ancestry (plural ancestries)

1. Condition as to ancestors; ancestral lineage; hence, birth or honorable descent.

   Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible. -Addison.

2. A series of ancestors or progenitors; lineage, or those who compose the line of natural descent.

Synonyms

• provenance

Related terms

• ancestor

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?i?d??/
• Rhymes: -i?d??

Etymology 1

From Middle English breedyng, bredynge (“gestation, incubation, propagation, hatching; engineering, formation, development, growth”), equivalent to breed +? -ing.

Noun

breeding (countable and uncountable, plural breedings)

1. Propagation of offspring through sexual reproduction.
2. The act of insemination by natural or artificial means.
3. The act of copulation in animals.
4. The good manners regarded as characteristic of the aristocracy and conferred by heredity.
5. Nurture; education; formation of manners.
6. Descent; pedigree; extraction.
7. (gay slang) Ejaculation inside the rectum during bareback anal sex, usually applied to gay pornography.

Derived terms

• inbreeding
• outbreeding

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English bredyng, bredynge, from Old English *br?dende, from Proto-Germanic *br?dijandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *br?dijan? (“to brood; breed”), equivalent to breed +? -ing.

Adjective

breeding (not comparable)

1. Of, relating to or used for breeding.

   Your toothbrush is a breeding ground for bacteria.

Derived terms

• breeding ground

Verb

breeding

1. present participle of breed

   Through genetic manipulation and harsh training, I am breeding a species of super-dogs to take over the world.

Anagrams

• beringed, bigender