Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Genealogy
/ˌdʒiːniˈælədʒi/noun
The study or record of a family's line of descent.
The Greek roots
γενεά
geneá
generation, descent
λόγος
lógos
account, study
Literally: “account of descent”
The story of the word
γενεαλογία was already a trade in archaic Greece, and Hesiod's Theogony is essentially a divine version of it. English took the word through Old French around 1300, at a point when a family's line decided who inherited land and who did not, which made the work lucrative and the results negotiable. Gene, genesis and genus all grow from the same γεν-.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
genegenesisgenuseugenics
In a sentence
Three months of genealogy turned the family's Highland romance into a Glasgow shipyard.