Words / C1

LIN-ee-ij/ˈlɪniɪdʒ/

Lineage is a line of descent: a long lineage, intellectual lineage. Family history and ancestry are everyday cousins; line (already in the dictionary) is the everyday word. Lineage is not liniment (a rub) or lining. Do not invent a lineage to launder a copied method.

Meaning

The series of families from which a person is descended; a line of descent.

Examples

• “Software lineage in the appendix beat a myth of a lone genius.”
• “Ancestry is everyday. A family tree is the diagram. Intellectual lineage is who you learned from. A line of people is a queue. Citation is how scholarship shows lineage.”

Good to know

Ancestry; a line of descent. Everyday: ancestry / family line. Mix-up: lining / liniment. Cite your lineage; do not fake it.

Near in meaning

ancestry

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