Pedigree comes from Anglo-Norman pé de grue, literally 'foot of a crane.' Medieval genealogical charts used a three-pronged branching mark to show descent, resembling a crane's three-toed foot. English speakers corrupted the French through pe de gru → pedegru → pedigrew → pedigree until the bird's foot was completely hidden inside the modern word.
A record of the ancestry or lineage of a person, family, or animal; a genealogical table or chart showing lines of descent.
From Anglo-French pe de grue (foot of a crane), a reference to the appearance of genealogical tree diagrams: the three-line symbol used to mark a line of descent in medieval manuscripts resembles the splayed toes of a crane foot. Pe de grue derives from Old French pied (foot, from Latin pes, pedis, from PIE *ped-, foot) and grue (crane, from Latin grus, from PIE *gerh₂-, crane, echoing the bird call). The diagram symbol was a common scribal convention in medieval genealogies and heraldic rolls, and the
Medieval scribes drew a three-pronged forking mark — resembling a crane's three spreading toes — to connect parents to children in genealogical rolls. The French called it pied de grue (crane's foot). English speakers mangled the pronunciation beyond recognition into 'pedigree' — one of the most wonderfully disguised metaphors in the language.