parentage

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French parentage,^[2][3][1] also Middle French parentage,^[1][4][5] formed from parent and the suffix -age.^[2][4][6] In Anglo-Norman it is recorded from about 1136 for a family, the ancestors through whom a lineage is traced, and for kinship.^[7] The OED, revised in 2005, treats the English word as formed from parent and -age on the model of the French noun, and compares Medieval Latin parentagium (“relationship”) of the late 11th or early 12th century.^[1] French parent is from Latin parēns (“father or mother, ancestor”), the present participle of pariō (“to bring forth, give birth to”),^[2] from Proto-Indo-European *pere- (“to produce, bring forth”).^[2] An earlier English word was parage, descent or lineage, from the late 13th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The exercise of a parent's functions, parental care and conduct: 1490, in Caxton's translation of the Foure Sonnes of Aymon.^[1][2] In the same year Caxton's Eneydos uses it for the rank or character inherited from one's parents and ancestors.^[1]

Semantic evolution

The sense of parental conduct was rare and is now obsolete, its last record dating from 1845.^[1] The meaning that lasted is descent: the identity of one's parents, or lineage, recorded from 1565 in Cooper's Thesaurus.^[1] Etymonline also dates it to the 1560s.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as extraction, birth, and condition with respect to the rank of one's parents, quoting Shakespeare's "A gentleman of noble parentage".^[8] Today it is used especially of nationality or ethnicity.^[1][9] The figurative sense, the source or origin of something, followed in 1581, in Mulcaster.^[1][2] Several senses did not survive: a person's parents collectively (before 1513), and kinship or relatives as a group (1548–1768).^[1] From 1876, in Gladstone, it was also used for the state of being a parent, a sense Collins marks as rare.^[1][9]

Timeline

• 1490 – the exercise of a parent's functions (obsolete by 1845); hereditary rank or character.^[1]
• before 1513 – a person's parents collectively (obsolete).^[1]
• 1548 – kinship, relatives (obsolete by 1768).^[1]
• 1565 – descent, lineage, the identity of one's parents.^[1][2]
• 1581 – the source or origin of something.^[1][2]
• 1876 – parenthood.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. Descent from one's parents or ancestors; lineage, now especially as to nationality or ethnicity: a painter of mixed Greek and Scottish parentage.^[9][4][1]
2. The origin or source of something: Nobody could agree on the parentage of the idea.^[9][4][1]
3. (rare) The state of being a parent; parenthood.^[9][1]
4. (obsolete, 1490–1845) The exercise of a parent's functions; parental care.^[1][4]

Related words

• parent
• parenthood
• parental
• parage

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins