progeny

English

WOTD – 1 June 2012

Etymology

From Middle English progenie, from Old French progenie, from Latin prōgeniēs, from prōgignō (“beget”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɒd͡ʒəni/
• (General American) enPR: prŏj'ə-nē, IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɑd͡ʒəni/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: prog‧e‧ny

Noun

progeny (countable and uncountable, plural progenies)

1. (uncountable) Offspring or descendants considered as a group.

   I treasure this five-generation photograph of my great-great grandmother and her progeny.

   • 2020, Brandon Taylor, Real Life, Daunt Books Originals, page 88:

     One worm on a single plate can give rise to thousands of progeny after just a week or so.

2. (uncountable, obsolete) Descent, lineage, ancestry.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 109, column 1:

     Beſides, all French and France exclaimes on thee, / Doubting thy Birth and lawfull Progenie. / Who ioyn’ſt thou with, but with a Lordly Nation, / That will not truſt thee, but for profits ſake ?

3. (countable, figurative) A result of a creative effort.

   His dissertation is his most important intellectual progeny to date.

Synonyms

• (offspring): binary clone, descendant(s), fruit of one's loins, get, issue, lineage, offspring

Related terms

• progenitive, progenitor

Translations

offspring

• Arabic: نَسْل (ar) (nasl), سَلِيل m (salīl), ذُرِّيَّة f (ḏurriyya)
• Armenian: սերունդ (hy) (serund), ժառանգներ (hy) pl (žaṙangner), հետնորդներ (hy) pl (hetnordner)
• Bengali: আওলাদ (bn) (aōlad), ফরজন্দ (bn) (fôrzônd)
• Bulgarian: потомство (bg) n (potomstvo)
• Catalan: progènie f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 後嗣／后嗣 (zh) (hòusì), 後代／后代 (zh) (hòudài), 子孫／子孙 (zh) (zǐsūn), 後裔／后裔 (zh) (hòuyì)

• Czech: potomstvo (cs) n
• Danish: afkom (da) n
• Dutch: nakomeling (nl) m, afstammelingen (nl) pl
• Esperanto: idaro
• Finnish: jälkeläiset (fi) pl, jälkikasvu (fi)
• French: descendant (fr) m, progéniture (fr) f, descendance (fr) f
• Galician: descendente m or f, casta
• German: Nachkommen (de) m pl, Nachfahren (de) m pl, Nachkommenschaft (de) f
• Hebrew: צאצא (he) m (tze'etza)
• Hungarian: leszármazott (hu), sarj (hu), ivadék (hu), utód (hu)
• Icelandic: afkvæmi (is) n, afsprengi (is) n, afkomandi m
• Irish: clann (ga) f
• Italian: progenie (it)
• Japanese: 子孫 (ja) (しそん, shison), 子種 (こだね, kodane)
• Korean: 자손 (ko) (jason), 후예 (ko) (huye)
• Latin: prōlēs f, prōgeniēs f
• Malayalam: സന്താനം (ml) (santānaṁ), സന്തതി (ml) (santati), കുഞ്ഞ് (ml) (kuññŭ)
• Maori: aitanga
• Ngazidja Comorian: wana class 2
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: avkom n

  Nynorsk: avkom n

• Ottoman Turkish: نسل (nesl), ذریت (zürriyet)
• Polish: potomstwo (pl) n, progenitura (pl) f
• Portuguese: progénie (pt) f (Portugal), progênie (pt) f (Brazil), descendência (pt) f, prole (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਔਲਾਦ (pa) f (aulād)
• Russian: пото́мство (ru) n (potómstvo), пото́мок (ru) m (potómok) (countable)
• Serbo-Croatian: potomstvo (sh) n
• Spanish: descendiente (es) m
• Swedish: avkomma (sv) c, ättlingar (sv) c pl
• Tagalog: kaapuhan
• Welsh: epil m or f

result of a creative effort

• Bulgarian: изход (bg) m (izhod), резултат (bg) m (rezultat)
• Finnish: saavutus (fi), aikaansaannos (fi), tuotos (fi)
• German: Werk (de) n, Schaffen (de) n
• Russian: детище (ru) n (detišče), плод (ru) m (plod)
• Swedish: resultat (sv) n, alster (sv) n

Anagrams

• pyrogen