Of low or inferior breeding or parentage; descended from common or humble ancestors.
From base (of low social status, Middle English from Old French bas) + bred (past tense of breed, Old English bredan meaning to produce offspring). The compound emerged in Middle English to describe animals or people of questionable lineage.
This word reveals how deeply medieval society cared about family trees—basebred animals were considered unreliable because people believed poor ancestry literally passed down weakness and unreliability, a belief that lasted centuries even after we learned more about genetics.
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