Past tense and past participle of breed; produced offspring through reproduction or carefully selected mating. Can also mean raised, nurtured, or brought up in a particular way.
From Old English 'brēdan' meaning to nourish or bring up, related to 'brōd' (brood). The word has maintained its core meaning of reproduction and nurturing across Germanic languages for over a millennium.
The phrase 'well-bred' originally referred to livestock and later transferred to people, creating our notion of good breeding as social refinement. This agricultural metaphor reveals how deeply farming culture influenced concepts of class and proper behavior.
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