thoroughbred

Etymology

It is formed from English thorough- + bred,^[2][3][4][5] with early forms built on through- instead;^[2] bred is the past participle of breed.^[5][3] The OED is unsure whether the first meaning was the one applied to people, recorded first, or whether that arose, despite the dates, as a figurative use of the sense applied to horses;^[2] Etymonline notes that the people sense is usually taken to be the figurative one, although it is attested earlier.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person, thoroughly educated or accomplished; complete, out-and-out: 1701, in Grew's Cosmologia Sacra.^[2][5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also dates the first known use to 1701.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the early 18th century the word was used mostly of people, Etymonline notes: a thorough-bred seaman, artist, courtier or scholar.^[5] The OED's first record for horses "of pure breed" is a 1719 advertisement in the London Gazette;^[2] Etymonline finds it used of a bull for sale in 1729 and of horses in English and Scottish newspaper advertisements by 1731.^[5] The noun, a horse of pure breed, followed in 1728,^[2] and in later use it came to mean especially the English racing breed descended from Arabian stallions and English mares;^[2][6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1820.^[6] From 1821, in Byron's Don Juan, the adjective described people or things with the grace and distinction of such a horse,^[2] and the earlier "accomplished" sense merged into this one, dying out on its own by 1928.^[2][3] A person could be called a thoroughbred from 1817, in Coleridge,^[2] and slang made it "upper-class" (1890) and "admirable, dependable" (1902 for the noun).^[7]

Timeline

• 1701 – of a person, thoroughly accomplished; complete, out-and-out.^[2][5][6]
• 1719 – of a horse, of pure breed.^[2]
• 1728 – noun, a horse of pure breed; later a Thoroughbred racehorse.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the breed sense to 1820.^[6]
• 1788 – of other domestic animals, of pure breed.^[2] Etymonline has it of a bull in 1729.^[5]
• 1817 – noun, a well-bred or thoroughly trained person.^[2]
• 1821 – having the grace and distinction of a thoroughbred horse; well-bred.^[2]
• 1869 – noun, any pure-bred animal.^[2]
• 1890 – slang, upper-class, sophisticated.^[7]
• 1901 – noun, a first-rate vehicle or vessel.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Bred from pure stock; purebred: a thoroughbred mare.^[8][9][6]
2. Of or belonging to the Thoroughbred breed of horses.^[8][6][2]
3. Well-bred, elegant or first-rate; thoroughly trained or skilled.^[8][6][2]

Noun

1. (usually capitalized) A horse of an English breed developed for racing from English mares and Arabian stallions.^[6][9][8][2]
2. A purebred or pedigreed animal.^[8][9][6][2]
3. A well-bred or thoroughly trained person.^[8][9][2]
4. A first-rate vehicle or vessel.^[2]
5. (slang) An admirable, dependable person.^[7]

Word family

• thoroughbredness

Related words

• thorough
• through
• bred
• breed

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins