lineage

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English linage,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French lignage (“descent, extraction, race”), also linage,^[5][3][6][2] from Vulgar Latin *līneāticum,^[7][8][5] formed from Latin līnea (“line, string; line of descent”) with the suffix that gave English -age.^[5][3][6] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1121–1135, with the senses line of descent, family, ancestors, tribe and the human race.^[9] The same Romance formation gave Spanish linaje, Portuguese linhagem and Italian lignaggio.^[5] The spelling lineage appears late in the 17th century, probably by association with line;^[5][6] Barnhart first finds it in 1697, in Dryden's translation of Virgil.^[4] The modern pronunciation was influenced by lineal or by the Latin source word.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The descendants of a particular ancestor: 1303, in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[5] Barnhart dates linage to probably before 1300, in Arthour and Merlin,^[4] a text the MED dates about 1330, perhaps composed before 1300.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word covered both a line of descent and the people in it.^[5][2] Lineal descent from an ancestor, ancestry or pedigree, is recorded from before 1330, and a family, tribe or clan viewed with regard to its descent from about 1366, in the Romaunt of the Rose.^[5] Until the 16th century the word could also mean one's ancestors taken together, as French lignage does in contrast with lignée, descendants.^[5] In Middle English it also meant good birth or noble ancestry, a single ancestor, and an animal's pedigree;^[2] Chaucer used lynage 25 times, for lineage, family and nobility of birth.^[10] Johnson (1755) defined it as "race; progeny; family, ascending or descending".^[11] In cultural anthropology the word came to mean a descent group traced through the father's or mother's line,^[5][12] and in biology, from 1940, a sequence of species each evolved from the one before.^[5] It is also used of the derivation of an idea, work or tradition.^[12][13]

Timeline

• before 1300 – linage, in Arthour and Merlin (Barnhart's date).^[4]
• 1303 – the descendants of an ancestor.^[5]
• before 1330 – lineal descent; ancestry, pedigree.^[5]
• c. 1366 – a family, tribe or clan, seen through its descent.^[5]
• before 1400 – one's ancestors collectively (obsolete by 1557).^[5]
• 1697 – the spelling lineage, in Dryden.^[4][5]
• 1940 – in biology, a line of evolutionary descent.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Direct descent from an ancestor; ancestry or pedigree: She could trace her lineage back to the first settlers of the valley.^[13][12][5]
2. The line of descendants of one ancestor; a family, tribe or clan.^[13][5][12]
3. In anthropology, a group tracing descent through one line from a common founding ancestor.^[12][5]
4. The source or line of development of something, such as an idea, a work or a tradition; derivation.^[12][13]
5. In biology, a sequence of species, each held to have evolved from the one before.^[5]
6. (obsolete, 1400–1557) One's ancestors taken together.^[5][2]

Word family

• matrilineage
• patrilineage

Related words

• line
• lineal
• linear
• -age

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins